DavidFR

The question is a little strange. Are you asking what our motivations were? 1) Perfect my skills in a foreign language. 2) Experience a foreign culture. 3) Excitement of the unknown. I didn't consider the economics as I knew I had a valuable qualification which would always get me work. Scope of practice also didn't come into it. I could earn money nursing, I was prepared to do what it takes. Moving abroad was for personal enrichment, not my career. In my mid 30s, I'd already had my "career." A nursing qualification was useful, it wasn't my life. That I ended up enjoying what I did professionally in my new country was a bonus, but I'd have put up with it to stay here a while. I had the attitude "if it's horrible, I can ultimately just go home." 25 years on I'm still here. It worked out largely because I think I was practical, flexible and didn't theorise about it too much. Really, Harriet (above) needs to get out more. Please can we not have AI? Human reflection and feeling is far superior.

Avoid cheap plastic nursing type croc style footwear. These weren't acceptable when I worked in the UK - I believe they are now. Back in the day we had to wear proper, standard, formal shoes totally enclosed and made of leather or a suitable alternative. You put overshoes on for sensitive areas (isolation etc.) Only the OR wore "clogs" Since arriving in France the plastic "clogs" were commonplace so I wore them for 25 years. Now I have a spur with associated tendonitis and my doctor, physiotherapist and podiatrist all claim it's from plastic nursing "clog" type footwear. Proper shoes, or genuine Scandinavian or Dutch wooden clogs which give your feet proper support. Plastic clogs and crocs in the bin.

In many democracies there is the possibility for an elected member of government to propose a vote of no confidence. If a majority of elected representatives votes in favour, then the sitting prime minister/president/whoever head of government is democratically removed, very often provoking a general election. This possibility exists in most European countries. It does require however, elected representatives with integrity and guts, who will put the interests of the country above their own political careers. Sadly for you guys, even if this possibility exists in the US, Trump's track record of accepting he is no longer the president is not great.

I didn't claim that Trump invented the anti-vax movement. Anti-vaxers were already active, however I don't think Trump and his administration are being helpful in preventing misery and death from preventable infectious diseases. I haven't lived in England for over 25 years so am unfamiliar with the current requirements. Try asking a current resident of England. In France there are now 13 obligatory vaccinations, updated from 11 last year, so the standard 11 plus Meningococcal B and and new combined Meningococcal A, C, W and Y. Every French citizen has a "carnet de vaccination" which documents your vaccination record. A French head teacher will refuse your child's admission to school without an up to date carnet de vaccination. Since education is compulsory in France from nursey education at age 3 to high school ending at 18, the only way to avoid vaccinating your child is to home school. Very few French parents choose this route. Most French citizens accept these rules as a valid public health measure. The sense of "communité" and "solidarité" is very strong here - years of socialist government under Mitterrand instilled a very healthy 'for the common good" attitude which despite successive governments of all colours, has largely prevailed. I like that. Hope all goes well with your shingles vaccine.

But totally relevant to parents who can't afford vaccines. As somebody who as an adult had both measles and chicken pox (followed years later by an attack of shingles), and all three were nasty, and who worked for years in Infectious Diseases and saw some absolutely horrific preventable scenarios, I can't understand any government that would not actively encourage the most comprehensive vaccine programme possible. If I were an American parent, I think I'd trust the advice of the CDC before I trusted the word of Trump. I remember the US once being held up as a shining example for having basically eradicated measles. And you've lost that status. Not just sad, but tragic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maspalomas_(film) I saw Maspalomas yesterday and was totally mindblown. Released last year in Spain but only just out in France. Hopefully it's out in the anglophone world too. Lead actor José Ramon Soroiz won a best actor Goya for his performance. The film is actually mostly in Basque with some Spanish. Sub-titled films have never bothered me. It tackles what is a very current issue in France at the moment. The first generation of totally out and proud gays are now at the age where they may go into age care. After years of being "out" and relatively free, some are facing isolation and discrimination again and for the first time in years crawling back into the closet. The film also deals very sensitively with the issue of sexuality in old age, the fact that desire doesn't necessarily die just because you're old and how do you handle that? Highly recommend this film to anybody with an interest in age care and/or sexuality issues. Warning if you're easily offended: does contain explicit sex scenes.

My ten centimes worth for what it's worth, though simply repeating what I've said a million times elsewhere on this forum. When the WHO used to publish league tables for health outcomes, two socialised heath care systems always alternated for first place : France and Sweden. The US was always way down the list. They also demonstrated that the US spent MORE on healthcare for poorer outcomes. Personal experience : grew up with and trained and worked in the British NHS. Since 2001 worked in and been been treated by the French Sécurité Sociale. Always received excellent health care, including in France for serious/critical health events - with fortunately excellent outcomes. Never had to worry about the bill. Don't resent my reasonable taxes paying for good health care. My husband was treated in an ER in Montenegro - didn't pay a penny and was very well treated, in a country with what was at the time a communistic health service in the former Yugoslavia. Private health insurers are only interested in profit, whereas the job of an elected government is to try to improve the life of the people. Private systems start off with the wrong objective hence in my view are doomed from the start to promote inequality. Health services should be kept in public hands for the common good.

When I worked in the UK (up until 2001) it was Orem. I remember a lot of paperwork and time wasted writing useless care plans that nobody ever looked at. It all felt very infantilising, writing obvious statements, and despite the pretence, not very academic. Since 2001 I've worked in France where we don't bother theorising. We just get on with it. I feel our professional judgement is more respected here, and it's less time on documentation and more time spent with the patients.

Agree. In a past life I was a CNS for which I needed a masters. I was still in patient contact 100% giving "care" - my patients just weren't in bed. I think these things are more dictated by the jobs market than by the levels of education. I've seen excellent research done at inpatient level by nurses doing their masters, doctorates etc. Such nurses don't necessarily leave the bedside. When I trained (early 1980s), jobs were few and far between, there was nurse unemployment and people stayed in bedside jobs for years because of insecurity. Fast forward just 15 years and there were jobs galore, shortages, agency nurses, bank nurses, and it was possible to change jobs very easily. Promotion came easier. People were in Charge Nurse rôles after just a few years qualified - unheard of previously, and thus went off into specialist rôles much earlier. Previously they might have waited longer or never done so at all. We also have to get out of this one size fits all mentality that you're somehow not evolving if you don't "progress" to a specialist rôle. You can evolve in bedside rôles. I went from a specialist rôle back to the bedside - and considered that an evolution, not a backward step.

You don't seem to understand that communist theory has evolved since Marx wrote his Communist Manifesto, nor that any socialist ideas are not automatically communist. Can you tell me which contemporary communist theorists you have actually read to form your very rigid ideas? Laguiller? Besançon? Or has it all come from Fox News?

As I said above in response to Beerman, you need only to look to the MacPherson report in the UK for an explanation of institutional racism. The same can be applied to sexism, ageism and homophobia. Your curent administration is resurrecting inequalities, not the opposite. That you think that you as a white male face discrimination is a classic example of those in privileged groups getting uptight about groups of people they don't particularly like starting to get anywhere near the same rights as their own privileged group enjoy. Hence they invert everything and scream "discrimination!" Any argument for white pride, straight pride, mens rights, cisgender rights are nearly always based on sheer bigotry. I refer you to the excellent "Minority Rule" by Ash Sarkar. She explains this perfectly: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/feb/20/minority-rule-adventures-in-the-culture-war-by-ash-sarkar-identity Infidelities do happen. In straight relationships too. I haven't cheated and I trust my husband implicitly. I am not high risk for HIV. Infidelity is evidently praying on your mind. Maybe you have doubts about your wife or girlfriend if you have one, in which case yes, go and get a HIV test, and then get out of a relationship with somebody you don't trust.

First of all you should digest Grumpy's excellent posts above. Secondly you shouldn't misquote people. I didn't say "every health provider" I said "every doctor". You've heard of institutional racism and institutional misogyny? Maybe given the limited world view you display you haven't, but I'll continue anyway. Institutional homophobia also exists. Homophobia along with racism, sexism, ageism, etc. can be engrained into a culture because of widely perceived stereotypes which have not been fully overcome. Institutional racism exists in many police forces and has thankfully been recognised in many European countries, hence efforts to overcome it. (I refer you to the MacPherson inquiry in the UK). Institutional homophobia is present in medicine: the shock and disbelief some doctors display when you explain you don't need an HIV test because you haven't been at risk. I always remember being give this scenario on a course once: Mrs. X, churchgoer, housewife, respected member of the community, wife of a businessman, volunteers for numerous charities, is a patent in room 1. Mr. Y, young gay guy, likes nightclubbing, single, is in room 2. Who's high risk? Most of the group say room 2. Then it's revealed that Mr. Y is still a virgin and has never done drugs. Mrs. X's husband frequently goes on business trips to Amsterdam where he has unprotected sex with prostitutes, goes home and has unprotected sex with his wife. It is in fact Mrs. X in room 1 who's HIV positive. NEVER pre-judge patients. To assume I'm HIV positive because I'm gay IS homophobia. I never mentioned the USA where I have never received medical treatment. On that score you are talking rubbish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Queen_and_the_Quest_for_Chloroqueer I saw Jim Queen this weekend. A Franco-Belgian adult cartoon which completely turns around all the stereotypes about gays. For those not in the know, the mother and health minister in the film is based on Christine Boutin, who was a family values French politician who could never say the words gay or homosexual but used to famously refer to: "les gens comme ça" (people like that). Absolutely hysterical. Given that it's already got a title in English I assume that means a release in the anglophone world is imminent.

I stress I'm not in the US and you may have different local policies. Do you have a policy manual or a senior nurse or doctor you can refer to? If not I would protect the orifice as above (if it's not too late) and seek medical advice.

Are you talking about a gastrostomy tube? This happened to me once in a hospital setting. I was told (by a doctor) to immediately insert a sterile urinary catheter and inflate the balloon to protect the integrity of the orifice. The patient then later had a new tube inserted in the regular manner.

Clearly you have no idea how HIV is transmitted. The comparison with prostate cancer displays lack of knowledge also. Certain racial and genetic factors make certain groups of people more prone to certain illnesses : black people - sickle cell, people of mediterranean origin - thalassemia, etc. Your risk of HIV is wholly related to behaviour. For a clinician to assume that because you are gay you spend your life in nightclubs off your t*ts on drugs in backrooms getting ****** is sheer homophobia, just as one shouldn't assume that just because somebody is straight they enjoy swingers clubs and dogging. In Africa and other parts of the world there's more heterosexual transmission of HIV. Go figure. I celebrate nuclear families. I celebrate all families, including monoparental and homoparental families. I celebrate childless couples having fulfilling lives and single people having fulfilling lives. The important thing is having found happiness, having found what suits you, not conforming to what society, church or family tell you you SHOULD do. Pride comes as a result of having overcome prejudice, discrimination, hostility and injustice. As a nuclear family in a heteronormative world, I'm sorry you've had none of that. If socialised healthcare is communist then give me communist health. I never have to worry about the bill. And before you talk about quality, when the World Health Organisation used to publish league tables, two socialised health care systems consistently alternated for first place in health outcomes: France and Sweden. As for the oppression you've experienced as a white male, presumably heterosexual and cisgender, well, my heart bleeds.

High risk behaviour makes you high risk, not your sexuality. You call me high risk. Neither my husband nor myself have had sex outside of our relationship for nearly 40 years. We don't do drugs. Taking a proper history rather than lazily saying "he's gay, I'll throw in a HIV test" would save public money, given that I live in a state funded health system. Doubtless your private health insurers in the US rub their hands in glee at the extra money from unnecessary tests, but when the state is paying, it's a sheer waste of money. Not to mention bad practice. You tell me I should appreciate such lazy stereotyping? Are you out of your mind? Why do you think I'm high risk? Sheer 100% homophobia, that's why. In Europe there is a rise in new infections in over 60s divorced heterosexual women dating again and being of an age when they weren't used to safe sex practices. They're not high risk because they're women, they're not high risk because they're divorced, they're not high risk because they're over 60, they're not high risk because they're straight. They're high risk because of their behaviour and any decent clinician takes a proper history first. I'm not particularly proud to be white because it's never been to my disadvantage. I understand black pride in the western context because of the racism black people endure and have to overcome. White pride usually means racism. Similarly straight pride can be interpreted as homophobia. I don't know anybody who's been called a filthy heterosexual and told they deserve to burn in hell because their heterosexuality is unnatural. And neither do you.

You think being gay is JUST about having sex? If you had ever experienced homophobia in your life you'd understand what Pride is all about. I've been called a ***, queer, poof and been beaten up on the street. I've been humiliated in changing rooms, at work, denied rental accomodation and promotion all for my sexuality. Every doctor I ever meet wants to HIV test me yet I've been in a monogamous, stable relationship for nearly 40 years. Most of that is long behind me and we're in a better place because of Stonewall and because of those first brave gay pride marchers who were spat on and had stones thrown at them. Pride is now a party celebrating our acceptace but in a world where it's still illegal to be gay in over 100 countries, including some who apply the death penalty, the political importance of Pride is still pertinent. Straight Pride is not widely celebrated for the same reasons we don't make a fuss about International Men's Day or White History Month. Does that really need explanation?

I experienced lots of "cash free" places on my last trip to London last year. Painful when you're just paying for a couple of coffees. Even where they accept cash they almost gasp in horror at the sight of somebody actually wanting to pay with real money. I was encouraged on a recent visit to Vienna to see that largely cash was still king. We even ate in one traditional restaurant that was still cash only (I have had this in Lisbon too). However the cost of living in Austria was probably best summed up by the fact that when I went to get €200 out of a cash machine, instead of a wad of notes, it spat out two €100 notes. That rather took me by surprise. In France I don't think I'd ever seen let alone used a €100 note.

I'm going to be very pedandic too Grumpy. Cornwall is in the southWEST of England. Having trained just over the Tamar in Plymouth, much of East Cornwall was part of our catchment area and yes, there are many Cornish who don't consider themselves really English. Spent many a Summer's day off in Looe or Polperro. The accent is just gorgeous and you can't beat a real Cornish pasty or Cornish clotted cream. It is the most beautiful part of the world. Similarly here in France, your Celtic cousins the Bretons often don't really consider themselves French. They actually can't introduce themslves without adding "....and I'm Breton" like it's a requirement to let you know. They do make the best crêpes, and cider. I do love Scotland. I spent a great few days in Orkney. Magical place. Sorry Grumpy, but your money IS funny. You often can't spend it south of the border despite it being legal tender in England. I once had a Scottish fiver refused flat in a bar in London. The barman actually refused on the grounds it was "Welsh" - don't think he was exactly brain of Britain.

Yes. Well put.

I first saw The Poseidon Adventure on TV when I was 16, the night before I was to take my first ever boat crossing, a 17 hour trip from Newcastle, England to Esbjerg, Denmark. Scared the life out of me but the trip turned out fine. Still think it's an all time great film. Disaster films are usually corny rubbish, but this one stands out, largely due to the great actors.

Tea. Strong black tea with a dash of milk as it's drunk in the UK and Ireland. Living in France most of the "tea" they sell here is coloured water. It has to be Indian Assam or a blend containing it. If I shouldn't mention brand names here the mods will edit it out, but I'll take a chance. I buy in bulk when I'm visiting or online: PG Tips from the UK or Barry's from Ireland. My post-shift survival drink is a glass of red wine: A Spanish tempranillo or a French Pinot Noir. Or after a really bad one, vodka.

I saw this last week and I second what you say. I reallly enjoyed this film. I liked that the central character was a typical, working class guy and that they didn't try to sanitise things.

Could you be clearer as to what you mean by boundaries? This could mean different things to different people. My own boundaries are not going in early and not staying late unless it's absolutely necessary (martyr syndrome leads to burnout), keeping a professional distance from patients (be empathetic and kind but remember they're not your friends) and socialising with friends who are neither nurses nor in related occupations so as not to talk shop all the time. Have interests and activities that are nothing to do with nursing. Having good working conditions is a key factor in avoiding burnout. Easier said than done, but I would say that if you have a choice don't stay at a facility if you feel you're being abused. Favour a facility that allows unions and be an active member of a union to protect your rights.