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By zarathustra, on February 29th, 2008
Oh dear, a silly set of comments by a silly man has unleashed a torrent of bile aimed at healthcare assistants.
This work is now done by assorted auxiliaries who have been taken away from the routine cleaning duties they used to perform so that they can act up to do jobs for which they are not trained. Jobs that used to be done by the nurses. The auxiliaries do not do the jobs well, just as the nurses who have left nursing for more important matters do not do whatever it is they now purport to do very well.
and…
I’m sure they were dirty and I’m sure they did talk over him about innappropriate topics: this is standard in much of the NHS today.
However, he was wrong about one key thing. They were not nurses. He was almost certainly descibing ‘Health Care Assistants’ – what we used to call Auxilliary nurses. They used to provide support care under the direction of ward nurses. Now, of course, they do all the nursing while the real nurses are chained to their desks filling out forms.
This seems to be an emerging trend on the health blogosphere. HCA-bashing is turning into the new nurse-bashing (not that the old nurse-bashing has gone anywhere). So, I’m going to put in a bit of balance by saying a few words in their defence. Here’s a homage to the Poor Bloody Infantry of the NHS: underpaid, understaffed and under a big pile of poo…the healthcare assistants.
Continue reading In defence of healthcare assistants
By E, on February 29th, 2008
The National Health and Social Life Survey supervised by Dr. Edward Laumann of the University of Chicago, was the largest and most reliable of its kind in North America. Laumann and his team reveal that straight women report having had five sex partners since they turned eighteen. Straight men report having had seventeen. As William James’s doggerel puts it
Hogamous, higamous; Men are polygamous.
Higamous, Hogamous; Women monogamous.
But is this true? Logically it takes two to tango so you might expect women and men to have almost the same number of sexual partners. In most countries the number of women exceeds the number of men by a few percentage points but this could only account for a tiny share of the discrepancy. Also adult men have sex with teenage girls more often than adult women have sex with teenage boys, but the survey only asked how many partners the respondents had had since the age of 18. The number of sexual relationships between adult males and minor females are a tiny fraction of all sexual encounters so this is unlikely to explain the discrepancy either.
Continue reading What has sexuality got to do with it? (Part2)
By zarathustra, on February 27th, 2008
This from the BBC.
Life in a typical mental health unit is not exactly festooned with luxuries. Like all hospitals, they can seem cold, clinical and austere places to many patients.
And life is about to get worse for many of those held in a unit. By 1 July 2008 they must all be smoke-free. Prisons, on the other hand, will remain exempt from the smoking ban.
Continue reading You can smoke if you go to prison, but not if you’re sectioned
By E, on February 27th, 2008
I read this here the other day. In it the author, Unity, takes Edward Leigh MP to task for his views on abortion and his links to a pro-life lobby in the House of Commons seeking to advance the case for increased restrictions on abortion. The piece is an intelligent one and well written and I would recommend the site, “Ministry of Truth” to anyone.
Continue reading Abortion, Pro-life or Pro-choice
By beakie, on February 27th, 2008
A few weeks ago, I met up with a student – we’ll call her Mavis – for a tutorial prior to an exam. Nothing unusual in that, pretty standard university lecturer activity. Except Mavis was a third year, who should have qualified last September but was still resitting an exam she had already failed three times in her second year.
Continue reading Futurama
By Mr Ian, on February 26th, 2008
Pigeons and cats are amongst each other. The BBC Have You Say is going all guns. In the first 3 hours of this article being posted on their website, the current stats are polling at:
Total comments: 905
Published comments: 281
Rejected comments: 1
Moderation queue: 622
Not bad for 3 hours. Wonder if mentalnurse.org can create that sort of blogsteria?
Continue reading Out of the frying pan…
By yaksley, on February 25th, 2008
(This is a guest post by Yaksley)
The Grand Old Duke of York was unusual in that he was neither up nor down. Most people often get down and then need a bit of help to cheer up. Doing nice things for people is a way of cheering them up, but be careful: when someone is struggling to hold themselves together, an act of gratuitous niceness can instantly reduce them to tears.
Do not attempt to cheer someone up by telling them you’re suffering more. This will not make them happier; it will just add an icing of irritation on their cake of sadness. Saying that worse things happen at sea is not a good idea, either, especially if you are on an expensive cruise at the time.
Continue reading How to… Cheer people up
By Mr Ian, on February 25th, 2008
As everyone else is presenting the serious stuff… I thought I’d bring you this.
He thought it was a titillating idea. In an effort to make his calf tattoo of a buxom cowgirl more shapely, Lane Jensen gave the tattoo silicone breast implants. But after two weeks, the Edmonton tattoo artist’s body rejected them
Continue reading I bet Tony Hart’s “Morph” never had this problem…
By zarathustra, on February 23rd, 2008
At Survivorworker’s request, this week’s edition is brought to you with the following words…
Police on the scene you know what I mean
They passed me up confronted all the dope fiends
If there was a problem yo I’ll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it
So yes, it is time indeed to stop, collaborate and listen for This Week in Mentalists. Nominations for future editions can be sent to zarathustra at mentalnurse dot org dot uk
Continue reading This Week in Mentalists (18)
By zarathustra, on February 23rd, 2008
As those of you who have been following the news will know, there’s been a spate of suicides in Bridgend, South Wales. 17 young people have committed suicide, all by hanging. Nearly all of them were not known to mental health services prior to killing themselves. The media seems to be blaming the internet. The local politicians are blaming the media.
So who’s to blame, Bebo or the Daily Express? I’ve been exchanging a few e-mails with CAMHS clinicians in South Wales, and I’ve received a couple of interesting stories.
Continue reading The Bridgend Suicides
By E, on February 23rd, 2008
The findings of a study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry (December 2003) suggest higher incidences of illegal drug usage, alcoholism, psychological problems, and violence in the gay community than in the general population.
“Gay men and lesbians reported more psychological distress than heterosexual women, despite similar levels of social support and quality of physical health,”
Continue reading What has sexuality got to do with it ? #1
By Azulinebloo, on February 22nd, 2008
This week I started on my first community placement. I am in a team that covers primary under 65′s, severe and enduring and over 65′s.
I will be spending time with 3 different CPN’s based in the same office. I will mainly be with the primary under 65 however.
Having gained almost all of my knowledge about CPN’s from this site (ha), I was expecting even better treatment that I have previously had in ward based placements, the truth, however, was not comparable.
In the entire week I have been there……prepare yourself, the following story is not nice.
Continue reading Student Nurse Faces Shocking Treatment on Placement
By zarathustra, on February 20th, 2008
Student nurse The Oracle has pointed out some charming comments from the Daily Mail website.
Nurses in this country are the most rude, militant, chip of the shoulder bunch of wingers you could ever need. The problem is now they are required to do a useless degree instead of learning their primary function which is to care for patients on the wards. They now see themselves as an equal to the doctor and a lot of the time think they know better that the doctor does. And as for the degree(as it was suggested) being mainly academic? Come on. It’s as academic as a media studies degree, in other words a non degree that waters down the term ‘degree’. Why would anyone with any academic ability choose to do a nursing degree over a medical degree or choose to be a nurse rather than a doctor?
A nursing degree is a “a non degree that waters down the term ‘degree’.”? (and breathe, and relax, and think of bunny rabbits and unicorns…AND SMASHING THEIR LITTLE HEADS IN WITH A HAMMER!!!!)
I mention this chap’s opinion because, funnily enough, I was formally awarded my nursing degree…yesterday. This may seem surprising to those of you who know that I actually qualified as a nurse last September. Why this confusing state of affairs? Let me explain…
Continue reading A matter of degree
By zarathustra, on February 18th, 2008
I don’t often go off-piste into non-mental health issues, but I’ll make an exception to highlight this story.
An e-mail sent out from a Daily Mail journalist.
PUBLICATION: Daily Mail (Request for personal case study) JOURNALIST: Diana Appleyard (staff) DEADLINE: 14-February-2008 16:00 QUERY: I am urgently looking for anonymous horror stories of people who [...]
By zarathustra, on February 16th, 2008
As a wise philosopher wrote….
Here comes the hotstepper, murderer
I’m the lyrical gangster, murderer
Pick up the crew in-a de area, murderer
Still love you like that, murderer
Can you tell I’m running out of ways to announce each edition of This Week in Mentalists? As always, nominations for future editions can be sent to zarathustra at mentalnurse dot org dot uk
Continue reading This Week in Mentalists (17)
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