Categories: nursing
Tags: health visiting
Date: 21 April 2010 19:23:04
I wrote a really dull post yesterday that was public for about a minute then I made it private, as it was so dull even I was bored with it, but it did say stuff I wanted to remember later. It was basically about work=bonkers, thesis=neglected, I=tired and was pretty whingey. Tomorrow work is going to be particularly bonkers, which I'm not particularly looking forward to, but at least this time tomorrow it will all be over (till the next time)!
I had an unexpected sort-of compliment at work today though. We are, as an organisation, going through a particular process to gain a particular status (don't want to be too specific here) which requires all clinical staff to have lots of training and testing and auditing and to do things in a particularly prescriptive way and that way only (an approach which doesn't necessarily sit naturally with the type of clinical practice I do). Lots of us have moaned about it, including me, as although I don't have a problem with the subject at hand (far from it) the way it is being rolled out, on top of all the other million things we also have to be trained/tested/audited in means that I feel we have no time to actually do our job properly. My caseload is actually quite a bit smaller than the one I had in London, but I am *so* much busier, I'm starting to wonder how I managed it in London as if I had that many children on my books here I would be having a nervous breakdown, ooh, about now (maybe I wasn't very good in London, and neglected lots of things. I hope not!).
Anyway, I'm digressing. Compliment. About a month ago I had the first of the testing sessions (they keep telling us it isn't a test, and try to make it sound more informal and less prescriptive, but it really is a test), and passed most of it but not all. We arranged another meeting ("resit") a few weeks ago (which I had to cancel as I had been so busy doing other things I hadn't given it a second thought), and then rearranged it for today. Of course I have been so busy doing other things I hadn't given it a second thought before today either, but couldn't realistically cancel it again so I mugged up for 15 minutes before the meeting, and then it went OK (that's how I got through O'levels too, my friends revised for weeks and weeks beforehand, whereas the most I did was a week's revision before the exam, and the ones I got A grades for were the ones I just revised the night before). And at the end - after all my moaning and all my complaints (I had a bit of an issue with one of the trainers at one of the initial study days so I was a bit ranty the first time I met with my tester assessor) - she asked me if I had any plans of staying in the job for any amount of time, and would I consider becoming a mentor for other people going through it all? And even though I have no intention of a. being a mentor or b. being around any longer than absolutely necessary, I did feel quite chuffed that, for that moment at least, I was doing something alright in my job. I know I'll never be health visitor of the year, but I do want to do my best while I'm in the job, and at the minute it's all so busy that it feels like there's no time to be anything other than mediocre.
This has ended up being whingey as well, but never mind! I have nearly built up a day's TOIL (time off in lieu) through working extra just in the last couple of weeks, but even though the thought of a day off is technically great, the reality is that it's also a very stressful thought, as there's so much to do that taking a day off will mean that the other days get overfilled with the work I would have done on that day, and the cycle continues. Argh.
Need to plan my escape .... (except that involves finishing the th*sis, but we won't talk about that particular source of stress this time! I'll save it for another whingefest :) ).