Wednesday 31 March 2010

Dark Place

I was going to write about a shift I worked recently which was woefully understaffed. I was going to write about issues concerning patient and staff safety. I was going to let off steam regarding the complete absence of the most fundamental of ward equipment on this ward. I could go on.

In fact I did write about the above, I even posted it. Then I deleted it. Its rare that I am left to feel this helpless. No serious harm came to anyone during the shift. So it would not be considered a priority. Infact we hit all our targets. I considered writing an incident report about this shift but the people who read incident reports are the people who put myself and my colleagues in that situation. They are also the people I was shouting at all day to no effect. When a patient or member of staff gets hurt the incidents will be noted by those high enough up the chain of command to change things. I just hope that it doesnt take a death.

4 comments:

Vincent said...

Damn, I was wanting to submit a comment to that post, comparing you to Florence Nightingale and I know not what else. But it seems your mood has changed - understandably.

The beauty of Google Reader, however, is to have preserved your post despite your having deleted it!

Asclepius said...

:) I was hoping it had been preserved somewhere. It was close to a breach of professional ethics to have posted it in the first place. However as a human being who is happy to answer for his actions I needed the truth to be told somewhere it would be heard, even to a small audiance.

Vincent said...

But don't you have your own copy? Even if you judge it a breach of professional ethics to publish now, these are valuable notes for the future. I can send you the deleted material if you need it.

Asclepius said...

:) Many thanks. I did retain a copy. I am hoping to look back at it in a few years time and feel things have changed. If in five years time I cant look back and say things are different now I think I'll start looking for a new job.