November 2006

CHANGING YOUR MIND

POINT 1: The human brain weighs just over 2lbs. Yet it has the capacity to consume 15 – 20 % of our energy.

POINT 2: Dr. David Horrobin wrote an interesting book named “The Madness of Adam and Eve”. Among other things he focussed on our evolutionary history. Man moved out of the east African rift valley along rivers and coastlines. Our ancestors ate a lot of fish, game and foraged on nuts, berries and the like. Dr. H emphasised the importance of diet and the particular importance of Omega 3 fatty acids. He believed that if we don’t provide our brains with the nutrients that evolution suggests we require then our mental states become increasingly vulnerable to illness.

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Except there’s only 5 in this post. Expect Part 2 to follow.

OSB and me were going to collaborate on this, but his ongoing technical problems meant that he couldn’t. However some of the suggestions are his and were better than mine

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My Godmother spent her working life as a bit of a boffin in the textile industry. She specialised in testing textiles to determine what type of purpose they would lend themselves to. I know, it sounds rather boring, but she had a few amusing anecdotes up her sleeve. You won`t be surprised to hear that most of them highlighted the breathtaking ignorance of the people responsible for NHS linen procurement.

Now I want to know who oversees NHS building development and commissioning. If I were to use the term “built at the turn of the century”, I would imagine your mind would conjur up a magnificent Victorian edifice, still standing tall after a 100 years or more. However, the last two units that I`ve worked in were built at the turn of the LAST century and they`re anything but magnificent.

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OldSchoolBaby has dropped enough hints in the comments on the previous post to embarrass me into putting up a post. Being an acute ward nurse he is unused to the slow steady pace suited to the needs of care in the real world……its all dash, rush and adrenalin for him in the artificial environment of the ward. Still horses for courses. This is a pretty bleak post again so be warned…….I promise to be a bit more upbeat next time.

A second post on the subject of service user death. This one is a bit more selfish than the last, preoccupied as it is with how managers (at least mine at the time) didn’t care about the people they employed.

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