GrumpyRN

Hugs from across the pond from someone in exactly the same position. I retired 2 years ago but my registration (licence) doesn't run out until later this year so I have done a few shifts on my terms just to keep in touch. That will have to stop soon as like you I cannot get the hours or the training to renew. You are absolutely correct, it is a big step and means that what defined me for over 35 years has gone. I console myself with the knowledge that every time I went in and worked a shift I remembered why I retired.

OK, so finally up and running. Just a couple of things; when you said weekend/Monday you forgot about us folks who are on GMT - they came a lot sooner for us. The other thing is, I received a nice new kindle for Christmas and signed in on that, I received an email telling me there was a sign in from a new device - which was good and very welcome - but..... it also told me I was signing in from Lansing, Michigan. Like anything new I am sure I will get used to the new look.

I like your article, but I think Mary Seacole was perhaps a better role model, she went to the front line with the soldiers. "Historians are now waking up to the shocking truth that the death toll at Nightingale's hospital was higher than at any other hospital in the East, and that her lack of knowledge of the disastrous sanitary conditions at Scutari was responsible. During her first winter at Scutari, 4,077 soldiers died there, ten times more from illnesses such as typhus, typhoid, cholera and dysentery, than from battle wounds. Conditions at the hospital were fatal to the men that Nightingale was trying to nurse: they were packed like sardines into an unventilated building on top of defective sewers." and "...when examined closely, the accepted doctrine that she saved soldiers' lives in her hospital suddenly dissolves before our eyes. And it has also allowed us to forget that Nightingale's priority on returning from the Crimea was not the reform of civilian nursing in Britain, but rather a thorough overhaul of the health of the army in peacetime." ​http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/nightingale_01.shtml BBC - History - Historic Figures: Mary Seacole (1805 - 1881)

What does what prove? I have given you a reference to a study - take it or leave it.

We are not talking about positive thoughts though, we are talking about 'prayer' as in asking for something or hoping that something hears them.

For those who asked, here is the reference to the prayer study, note it is American and please read the conclusion. Elsevier

OK, I see I've upset a couple of people. Has anyone actually looked at the research which shows that in some cases patients being prayed for have a poorer outcome when they know about it and those who don't know about it has no effect at all? As Ricky Gervais said recently; “Beyonce, Rhianna & Katy Perry send prayers to #Oklahoma #PrayForOklahoma".“I feel like an idiot now… I only sent money.” I want to make my position absolutely clear, in the case of spirituality no nurse should ever put their beliefs or unbelief's into the relationship with patients. We should remain professional at all times, support the patient and family but not become involved in that part of the family dynamics. Their religiosity is entirely their concern - not ours.

Prayer, how to do nothing but still think you are helping.