Yesterday I went to a funeral of a childhood friends mum, I hadn’t seen her in a while but my friend reached out to me and I felt that I should go. Someone once said to me that funerals are for the living not for those who have died and it’s very true as I…
Category: Personal reflections
Looking after ….us !
Last week I spent a day at the Chief Nursing Officer for England’s Annual Conference (#TeamCNO) and whilst tweeting in the lead up to the conference I challenged Sam Sherrington and Kath Evans to write a blog about one thing that resonated with them during the conference. Kath has already written her blog post HERE…
Kindly disagreeing
I have spent quite a while thinking about this blog post, it’s a tricky one to write as finding the right words is important. I love social media and I love nursing …. but there is a huge negative to being an active and vocal nurse on social media in that sooner or later someone…
The wonder of social media
Over the last week or so I have been carefully constructing a blog around unkindness in social media spaces …. this is not that blog …. but I am telling you this, dear reader, because it gives a little context. The reason I have been constructing a blog around unkindness is because I have seen…
Running towards danger
I have always been a cautious person, I like to think about things, look before I leap and often not leap at all! In fact at a recent family trip to one of those tree top adventure courses I was the one who opted out of the Tarzan swing and went the long, but safer,…
Evidence based tea
This blog has been rattling around in my head for a few weeks now, mainly because I wanted to find the right words to share my thinking. Sometimes I feel that we have to be careful with our words so that we don’t get misinterpreted .. I hope that I have chosen the right words…
Not Mrs Smith!
When I was a student nurse someone told me a story that went something like this: One day Mrs Jones went into hospital for a minor operation. Before the operation the consultant came to the ward to see Mrs Jones and said “Hello Mrs Smith I am your consultant Mr Brown” Mrs Jones, quite rightly corrected Mr…
The problem with resilience
I think that’s it’s time to open up the debate on the term resilience – I have a problem with resilience, I know its en-vogue currently for nurses to be resilient, and in theory I get why, but in reality I am not so sure. How about we start this with a definition …. The…
Caring for ourselves – a personal reflection
I was looking down my Twitter stream this week when I came across a really though provoking question: Pondering upon why the caring professionals often find it hard to ask for help when they need it themselves? #CarersNeedCaringForToo — Ruth Sanders (@ruthalexsanders) June 22, 2015 I found it thought provoking for a good reason, and…
A personal reflection to start 2015
It feels almost like it was yesterday – my exit interview at the nursing agency I worked for – I can hardly believe that it is actually getting on for 3 years ago now, but I will never forget the words of the manager who conducted that interview. This was the manager who would laugh…