Remember, I am not English…
But… Dr Who – he’s international; the guy with the blue police-box, alien time-lord?
Tag Archives: staff
Night at the hospital
There is an assumption that when the lights go down and the night-staff appear on the scene that things become quiet and still – a little like a scene from Bambi.
Person-centred
Could you Facetime your doctor when you are on holiday in Greece rather than having to wade through the complexities of health insurance (yes, Brexiters) and a foreign health system?
Just what are we doing?
Snap – your left hip.
Stop!
She survived. She could have died – I never asked the question.
1328 and some
‘Did my dad die because someone didn’t follow policy, didn’t pay attention or, was the outcome inevitable?’ ‘Might my mum have survived the operation if she had a different surgeon or she was at a different hospital?’
Revealing, honesty and openness
Thank goodness for those who push the boundaries, who are open and transparent, showing the world that we aren’t infallible, perfect beings. That we are all human.
Unnatural selection
You are unconscious, the focus for the doctors and nurses is maintaining your physiology with particular attention to your brain and heart.
Evolution two ways & Rio
As modern humans we are the best of the best – most of us are perhaps not as perfect as the Olympians strutting their stuff at Rio, but, pretty damn good.
Medicines, etc.
Nevertheless, within the dark underbelly of medicine, where geriatricians live, there are some quite stunning effects often, from stopping and sometimes starting medicines.
1328
They aren’t diseases or malfunctioning organs, they aren’t flow or machinations of the system; they are universes unto themselves and those who love them.
Gut microbiome, antibiotics and older people
We, the homeostatic organisms that have evolved over the past four billion years, exist in a state of serenity when well, but things can be thrown out of kilter by disease.
Teacups
In other words, intravenous saline although a fundamental part of modern medicine is nowhere near as good as a cup of tea.
The Interceptors
The point, as is often the case, is my aversion to patients. Or rather, the existential construct that relates to the ‘patient state’ = they who suffer; with the principal goal of my life being to obviate suffering, my objective is to really stop people turning into patients.
And that is the role of the interceptors.
Let’s talk
We humans are so incredibly expert at communication that we often forget about its importance, a little like breathing – which in a similar vein, is only an issue when you can’t.
Dementia awareness week #DAW2016
Slow down, be mindful, respect your elders, respect your knees & don’t mess too much with your hair!
Medically fit
So long as you are still able to participate, join-in with the conversation, your perception of self is just as valid as that of the doctor or nurse.
Things could have been different…
How to change the system?
Continuity (ii)
I try my best to ensure the continuity of care, of relationships, particularly on my ward, which is critical as so many of the patients themselves are lost – being lost within a system which is itself lost, must be terrifying.
Vindication
And so, back to the junior doctors –
How far can you walk into a forest?
If you take away our air, our water and our food, we will not survive, that is the situation being foisted on doctors and everyone else in the health service.
Puberty, the NHS and Laloux
Here we have it, a system that needs to be changed, a system that is changing and a process that is threatening to kill that system – you might think of puberty with anabolic steroids or platform boots – wobbly, unsafe and unsightly.
Tevye and QI
They came from across South Yorkshire and it was inspiring to be in a room with so many bright, young people
Visiting time, or, what is 21st Century Medicine?
Our actions at times border on the holy, and we cannot allow the profane to defile the sanctity of the experience.
You don’t know what you’ve got…
And so, to my colleagues, the team of Mallard, I say, here we are – we are something special, we are the exception to the exception that allows magical things to happen.
Leaders and leadership
What does it take to make a leader? Last night I watched ‘Inside Obama’s White House’ – I guess, if you want a mould, if you want a standard by which to define a leader, it is Obama. I believe that ‘Obama’ is one of the greatest events/things/people to have happened in the 21st Century – admittedly,Continue reading “Leaders and leadership”
Carers, care and caring
These are questions I will never be able to answer.
How the tree grew, Or… the unintended consequences of improvement and change;
The tree, like the people who work on the ward and who receive our care are part of the art, part of the creation, the magic that is our team.
Innocence and experience – sorry, I don’t know
Unless I am 100% sure that it is the left kidney, surely I should ask before I remove the wrong one, or prescribe the wrong medicine or convey the wrong information.
I don’t like pathways
To a box, the world is the world, is the world.
Hello, my name is Dr Kersh
Call me Rod and I’ll be happy;
Theory of attributions and me
Attribution is funny and not something I fully understand.
Team – the next step
There has been a silent revolution happening…
Followers, leaders and into battle
Why should you follow them?
So here is the thing & it’s me
We are human, all too human.
Fear and Change
In healthcare, it seems, like dominoes, different parts of the NHS are falling-over, systems and organisations toppling, stumbling
What do you do?
I have recently been asked to show what I do, to demonstrate, I guess, how much value I am for the money spent on me.
Advance Care… the future?
We can look at quantity of life – something we have very little influence over, or, we can address, quality – an area we can influence tremendously.
Cannulas and Cannulae
I can’t imagine what modern medicine would be like without these colourful pieces of plastic.
Patients in pyjamas
Patients in pyjamas – it might sound a little flippant, but I think this is something that is very important. I cannot comment on the behaviours of other patients outside of the UK – we, in Britain, approach hospital attire in a special way; pyjamas. I don’t know when pyjamas began in hospital – whether backContinue reading “Patients in pyjamas”
The elderly old
So, I have a problem with the elderly; what do I do when I have James, a 95 year old man, with coal tattoos crisscrossing his knees from years down the pit, as he coughs and lies in bed worrying about his wife who is at home, struggling to cope herself.
This is me… this is you
How can we change a 98 year old with pneumonia into a person, how can we sketch, add layers of detail that establish the place of this person in the clinical stratosphere? How can I convey their humanity?
Some more thoughts on urine infections…
It is likely that a doctor, a nurse or carer admitting, ‘something is wrong, I don’t know what,’ is better than heading off down a therapeutic blind alley.
Reducing restrictive interventions
Take a moment to think of those nurses, healthcare assistants, therapists and domestics who daily see beyond the fear and the worry of an old person, to the human being who is hiding in the shadows, obscured by layers of disease, for they are what keep us human.
Therapeutic lies and false promises…
I have spent the past few days feeling bad – It is strange, when you discover that something you have been doing, that you had considered ‘right’ is explained to be wrong; it is a little like breaking the law when you don’t know something is illegal … I can’t think of an instance (or,Continue reading “Therapeutic lies and false promises…”
Human Factors, space-time and Yiddishkeit
On Friday I attended the Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Collaborative ‘One Year On’ conference. A number of speakers from the region discussed the work they are doing to make predominantly hospitals, but all care in the wider sense, safer, less likely to result in inadvertent harm. Primum non nocere – first, do no harm,Continue reading “Human Factors, space-time and Yiddishkeit”
There is a strange aesthetic associated with care
If you go to an art gallery, whether the National Portrait in London or your local museum, where paintings are displayed, there is something mesmerising about the human face; when an artist captures the moment of silence, of stillness or of movement, when the years are brought into focus and a person is seen as aContinue reading “There is a strange aesthetic associated with care”
Tigers, Scotsmen, and hospitals
Last night I watched a re-run of ‘Lost Land of the Tiger’ – this is a nature documentary with Steve Backshall, Scottish Wildlife Cameraman Gordon Buchanan, Scottish Entomologist George McGavin and others wandering about the highlands and lowlands of Bhutan in search of evidence of tigers. The programme focuses on the creation of a ‘tigerContinue reading “Tigers, Scotsmen, and hospitals”
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