Remember those scenes during 9/11 where hundreds of people were running away from the burning twin towers?
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COVID-19: homewards
We are turning for home today. Plan to spend tonight in Jugiong and then roll up the highway to Canberra on Sunday morning. Despite the grim tide of suffering that is engulfing the world right now we have had a most excellent and uplifting trip. But it seems like the right time to return home. […]
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Nursing flashback.
Scrolling back through a million jangled memories that cannot be shared here, but instead, hang thick as old anchor ropes set fast between those of us who cared. Four impressionable years spent in a number of very different hospitals convinced me once for all that nursing, if it is to be done efficiently, requires, more […]
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Build an ADMIT KIT for unexpected hospital admissions when travelling
You never know when an unexpected medical problem will interrupt your trip with a hospital visit. Here is a list of useful items to take with you. Even better, if you (or a family member) are about to go to hospital, or you frequently require admission, why not make an admit kit. A small pre-packed […]
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The Flatus Nurse
Life was pretty tough for a junior nurse back in the day*: Military hospital, France 1945: the flatus nurse does her rounds. At precisely 7 AM each morning the flatus nurse would commence her round.Patients would assume the Schlemberg’s position (recumbant with legs held high in the air) and one by one, amidst much grunting, […]
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How do you sleep when it’s 43 degrees Celsius?
Many parts of Australia are expecting temperatures consistently approaching or above 40 C (105 F) this week. Some areas will top 45 C (113 F). It’s hard enough trying to get our day to day activities done in these conditions, but imagine for a moment if you were trying to sleep through them overnight. For […]
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Why I don’t write about my life as a nurse.
it was the best of times. it was the worst of times.
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Nursing in the 1950’s
A few of my mum’s standout memories working as a nurse at Mount Gould Hospital, Plymouth in the 1950’s. The Korean war had just begun, Polio Vaccine was saving thousands of lives, and the legends of Lego and Sputnik were just about to be deployed. This was the time my mum did her nursing training […]
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Why medical teams WALK to an emergency.
One of the responsibilities of the Emergency Department where I used to work was to attend medical emergencies (or ‘codes’) elsewhere in the hospital. We would dispatch a medical emergency team (known as a MET team), comprising a senior doctor and nurse. When their pager goes off they respond by pushing this rather big trolley […]
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