jabiru

You bet. I get sick and tired of answering the stupid telephone. 99% of outside calls are from friends/relatives wanting to be transferred through to the bedside. I don't remember signing up to be a receptionist.

Wow, ain't that the truth. Even at ward level, there are fewer and fewer nurses doing the actual hands-on care. And what's with all the frickin' meetings? All the hours wasted in meetings talking about patient care instead of doing it.

Grrrr. Some nurses can't spare the time to take a meal break. Others can't even take the time to go to the loo and yet others nick out for a smoke. What gives? We have a few smokers on the ward where I usually work and they go out three or four times a shift for a cigarette break. They're usually gone 5 or 10 minutes. I wonder how well it would be accepted if I decided to sit down, off the ward, for a coffee break as often as that? Grrrrr. :angryfire :angryfire

Give it a shot, if you really think you'd like it. I know nothing about how the immigration rules might apply to you but nurses are really in short supply here.

This is so very true. I don't know what's happening where you are but in Australia, there is very much a head-in-the-sand approach to the looming nurse shortage. They can't go on importing nurses forever and not enough new nurses are being trained to replace those who retire. Almost half the nurses in this country are aged 45+ (me included) and it's predicted that 100,000 nurses will retire in the next 15 to 20 years. Nowhere near that number are being trained. I guess they'll do what they always do and wait until the drama unfolds and then say, "but no one told me".

No, I help if I can. I'm going to worry now if my motives are going to be scrutinised.

Oh, dear. If I'm having a good day and on top of things, I always make a point of offering colleagues help. It never occurred to me that I might be seen as gleeful. I've been in situations where I've been running my butt off (will that get censored here?) and so-called workmates have been sitting at the desk. I vowed I'd never do that but I also don't want to be seen as smug if I offer to help someone.

I work in paeds, so it doesn't apply. Honestly, it never occurred to me that nurses would be expected to take patients outside for a cigarette break. What sort of message does that send? Having said that, the last time I worked in adults, smoking was still permitted in the ward areas and patients had ashtrays on their bedside lockers! It kinda boggles the mind now, to even think of it.

The permanent staff where I work (full time and part time) do rotating rosters. Some wards have 12-hour shifts and others 8-hour shifts. Everyone is expected to do everything. I don't think new grads should be put on permanent nights, just because it suits the more senior staff to do days. How can the new grads be supervised properly? How do they get to see how the ward runs during the day? Days are completely different from nights where I work. I'm casual for family reasons, so I do only evenings. They're slightly less frantic and suit my personal situation.

We had to use a clean cap each day - starched cloth, not paper. I'm not saying they were essential for reasons of hygiene but the standards today have slipped enormously with nurses wearing their hair every which way. I realise I'm in the minority here, but I think hair trailing down a nurse's back is very unprofessional.

To keep the hair under control and to show status.

I totally agree. I spent some years out of nursing because of family commitments and I was quite surprised (horrified, really) at how some nurses present themselves. We, in Australia, have only been educating our nurses at tertiary level for about 20 years (less, in many cases). Part of the reason for the shift from hospital based training to universities is for reasons of 'professionalism'. Unruly hair, jewellery and nail polish have no place, in my opinion, adorning bedside nurses.

I've seen that as well. I think it's unprofessional. Flame away.

The comments that caps are an infection control issue interest me. I trained 75 - 78 and caps were part of all trainee nurses' uniforms then. RNs wore veils. The veils weren't a problem because the RNs did very little actual patient care - that was all done by the students. Back to the infection control point: our hair had to be up. And I do mean UP. Right under the cap, nothing hanging down. And the cap covered the lot - well, almost the lot. I know I'm going to sound a zillion years old here (not far off it) but when I see nurses these days with their hair trailing halfway down their backs, I wonder if we didn't throw the baby out with the bathwater when we got rid of caps.

I work in paeds and no one in my family fits the demographic anymore but when they were small, there was nowhere else I would have taken them, especially for important stuff.