Backs

I have written before about having a painful back after 25+ years of humping patients about. Nowadays I follow a no-lift policy which will hopefully limit any damage done. But yesterday I had to deal with a large man who was lying on the trolley making no effort to sit himself up. His relatives came to me and asked if I could lift him up the bed, bearing in mind this man was bigger than I am and weighed more than me I refused and said that I don't lift patients. Before I could get a chance to say that I would get some help and some lifting aids they were asking if one of the girls (female nurses) could lift him? I'm afraid I exploded a bit and asked through very gritted teeth that if I as a 13 stone 5' 9" male had refused to lift, what made them think that a 9 stone 5' 2" female was going to do it? Apparently female nurses have superhuman strength and can lift several times their own body weight. No wonder the biggest complaint from nurses is "my back is hurting today" and back pain is one of the main reasons for staff having to leave nursing early.

Parenting

I know that all the youngsters have mobile phones and can't seem to do anything without it being glued to their ear, I even have a phone. But I have discovered a couple of bad points about them. First off we now have a generation of children who cannot problem solve, for example if I missed my last bus home when I was a teenager it was up to me to get myself home, I had to think about it and solve the problem. Now all a child has to do is call home and mummy or daddy will come rushing out to pick them up - can't have little Johnny/Janie walking the streets with all those muggers and rapists. This is wrong because there are no more muggers and rapists and child molesters out there then there ever was, this is not new it is just reported more and gives children and parents a false sense of insecurity and does not foster independence in children.

Mobile phones are noisy and other peoples conversations tend to be boring and inconsequential - my conversations on the other hand are witty, intelligent and insightful.

Mobile phones can take your attention from what you are supposed to be doing. Young lady presented with child who was patient. Child playing happily in our play area, mum playing happily with her mobile phone - texting or playing games but engrossed in what she was doing. Child shouts out "Mummy I need the toilet" loudly and several times. I was aware of this but was busy and did not pay a whole lot of attention. Mum paid no attention to this at all and continued what she was doing. Little one had no choice but to do toilet in our play area despite toilet being about 20 feet away and clearly marked 'Children's Toilet'. When this was pointed out to mum what was her reaction?............ Nothing, did not bother her at all. Even when we challenged her behaviour we were met with a shrug of the shoulders. And who do you think cleaned up the mess?............. Yes the staff. So, how much chance do you think that this little one has for the future when her mother can't even take care of her toileting needs ahead of the mum's need to text?

Dogs and Doctor Who

A rant today and not hospital or NHS related.

I took my dog out this morning, nothing unusual there but while we were out we met other people with their dogs. Now, my dog is a very timid thing and runs away at the sight of bigger dogs - she is also a bully and intimidates smaller dogs - and to make matters worse she is in season at present. These people were allowing their dogs to run around in a pack with no control at all with the result that I had to curtail her walk a bit and go in a different direction to what I wanted, I have met these people before, they think it is all right for their dogs to chase other dogs, "They're only playing" is the cry. Sorry, but they are not, they are pack animals and they will attack single dogs. I once had a large dog steal my dog's ball, it's owner then spent about 10 minutes chasing it around the park shouting "Good boy, come here now" but not actually doing anything. Eventually I lost the plot and shouted at her that "he is not a good boy and all you are doing is reinforcing his behaviour! Control him NOW!" As you can imagine this did not go down well and I was the bad one as he was only young - but he was off the lead. If you can't control your dog don't take them off their leads!

I grew up with Doctor Who, my doctor was William Hartnell, and I remember watching the first episode in 1963. I watched them all every week but as I grew older and during Jon Pertwees' time I lost interest completely and would only watch intermittently. I liked the new series with Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant because of some very good stories and good acting. But, I wonder if the new Doctor, Matt Smith will be able to cut the mustard? He looks far too young to have the gravitas of someone 900 years old but time will tell. A comment I have read here from BBC insider Pickwick asks if there is a love interest will we be having Hollyoaks in space?