Interesting info, Pat. Suggests to me that “the patient mind-set” is still something to be reckoned with, don’t you think? NHS Trusts don’t spend money on posters if there isn’t a good reason to do so.
And I’m not so out of touch as people may think. I only gave up nursing practice aged 74, and continued hospital activity in another front-line role in the NHS until I came to France in 2015.
There is lots of evidence of regression to childish behaviour in the UK adult population. Dependence on mobile phones is one. People panic helplessly if they are deprived of them for any reason, and regress into mute rage or passenger paralysis if transport is delayed. “Nobody is telling us anything!” they whimper. Not everyone, bit a sizeable minority.
Older people are generally more mentally resilient, more resourceful, and better able to cope with ,exigencies and emergencies than many youngsters these days.
And we can offer wider perspectives on recurring problems: Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, peut-être ?
I found in my very limited experience of being the recipient of hospital care that there is a concerted effort to infantilise as much as humanly possible, what with being addressed by one’s first name while the consultant is mr so and so or just ‘doctor’, being called ‘mum’ by people (quite extraordinary, that) having things explained in the most patronising, euphemistic way.
The main reason I had my youngest 3 children at home was because it was so utterly ghastly being in hospital for the first two. It may be different if you are actually ill, rather than just having a baby, of course.
Institutional (NHS) behaviour is a very difficult but to crack, Véro ; indeed, using force to crack it is useless. It’s more like a virus or a parasitic organism on a huge scale: it devotes a huge amount of its resource to resisting change. I’ve devoted most of my professional life working for significant change, with very modest results, but worth the effort, and not always feeling hopelessly outnumbered.
I learned more in 3 years living and working in Zambia about how people cope with illness than I did in twenty years in Europe. No infantilisation there, because the infant-adult “dichotomy” is conceptualised and acted upon almost entirely differently in that part of Africa (as is pregnancy and childbirth). I think you already know this well enough from your own experience.
It’s good that nurses nowadays have made some inroads into medical patriarchy; but there is huge push-back to deprofessionalise nursing, price it out of the healthcare market, and mince it into tidbits to be picked up.by the commercial giant squids of the USA.
Giving sweeties to the girls is part of the tactical softening-up process: after all they do love soft centres!
I do hope I am right in assuming that the ‘sweeties to the girls ‘line is meant to be ironic and not incredibly patronising
To be honest reading the initial article that @Teresaship linked to and reading the rest of the thread in more depth I am concerned that you should feel that this is all one big conspiracy to get nurses stoned and then subject them to sexual assault- who by ? Were there crowds of randy men hiding in the linen cupboard,stowed away in the sluice.? I would think poor old grandad feels bad enough about his mistake ,where he to read such allegations he’d be devastated
Yes, Pat, it was ironic and any other interpretation given the context would I think be misplaced?
As to your further interpretation of my original comment on the incident, a more fastidious reading on your part should render it more obvious was my concern that nurses “slipped a Mickey Finn” (a stupefactant) could mar their judgement in a critical task, like an IV medication, or reading someone’s vital signs in critical care.
If you were/are a nurse, you might agree that it constitutes a hazard, and probably an assault. If you think it’s just a bit of harmless fun, could you justify your professional opinion to the NMC?
Any extended sexual innuendo into my comment has, I suggest, been inserted by you. If that remotely be the case, Pat, I can only wonder at your possible motive? But I take serious exception to it, and trust you will not make matters worse by adding to it.
And I don’t agree it was an honest mistake: the hospital authorities reported it to the police who investigated it and understandably could not establish criminal intent, so did not prosecute. I imagine cards have been marked though.
People who could carry out a physical assault by deliberately and covertly poisoning people at work could be capable of anything. If it happened to an airline pilot or a bus driver the miscreant could well have a terrorist charge slapped on them.
Some people seem to have no.proper sense of proportion these days, and I don’t necessarily mean you, Pat.
We will have to agree to differ about the intention of the person bringing the cake in like we will have to agree to differ about people giving hard working staff a small token of their appreciation
There is no evidence whatsoever of the ‘gift’ being a precursor to sexual assault or verbal abuse towards the recipients. You, Peter, introduced the ‘sexual’ angle and l find your suggesting it rather interesting. I also believe that working with criminals, as l did, or the seriously mentally disturbed, as you did, leaves a ‘scar’ which cannot ever be erased just intelligently managed on a day to day basis IMO.
I take your point, Dan, and it’s a very supportive and professional one for which I am grateful. There is inevitably a long shadow cast by a lifetime of work in some of the more sulphurous fire-pits of the world we live in, and the supervisory hand on the shoulder is a boon. A stitch in time.
Thanks Pat, for supplying a very fair and fitting conclusion to a disagreeable exchange, which I think neither of us enjoyed. See Dan’s nice intervention and my reply.
I had forgotten my remarks about the possible assumptions, which I acknowledge were my own, for which I apologise to you sincerely. Je ne suis pas dans mon assiette…
With every good wish to you, and of course to Mandy, my banana loaf guru qv somewhere…
qv somewhere…