I was reading the thread that Gayle started...(she is a prolific thread starter our Gayle)....about when did we all finish work for Christmas.....I really didn't feel disposed to answer. Mainly because I finished work for Christmas on the 27th of September 2002. Saying that, like Lettie I think I worked almost every Christmas from 1974 to the time I finished.....I also worked quite a few of the New Years Eves too. The rota that most nurses dreaded for New Year was a late shift on New years Eve followed by an early shift on New years day. I have known nurses dash into the changing room at the end of their shift on New years Eve....get into their party duds and then off they go to their celebrations.....on New Years Morning they stagger into work.....still in their party gear and change back into uniform for their shift of duty.....no sleep, bleary eyed and probably still suffering the effects of the alcohol they had consumed at their party.
When I was the ward Sister I would send them off home to recuperate...it was much easier than coping with them in the work place....needless to say they would have to take the day off as time owed or holidays.
When I first started nursing......families of nurses were encouraged to come up to the ward and sit in the sitting room while you worked.....we used to let most of the patients go home for Christmas anyway.....so only those patients who were either very sick or elderly and unsupported would be in hospital. One year I was working the late shift on Christmas Day......the afternoon was very quiet and to be honest it was boring just sitting about.....we would make drinks for the patients and their relatives and offer them mince pies and such.....but nothing too taxing was happening. My hubby came up to the ward and brought my daughter who would be about 12 years old at the time.....hubby beggared off and left daughter with me.....he said he would be back at 8:30 pm to pick us both up off the shift. I was on duty with and enrolled nurse and an auxiliary nurse.....and to be honest for most of the shift that was enough......then somebody said those tragic words 'It isn't usually this quiet at Christmas'........now when I worked on the wards we never ever used the Q word.....it always presaged disaster. The words had hardly left the girls mouth when the telephone started to ring......emergency after emergency after emergency poured into the ward......I was running bags of saline through and turning back beds.... making up emergency case sheets.
I wasn't quite sure if I was coming or going it was so hectic. Most of the patients who were coming in were going to need to go to theatre.....and there was one very sick lady brought in who went to theatre on the ambulance trolley. My daughter came in very useful on that shift......she gave out the evening meals....collected the meal trays once the meals had been eaten.....made the patients their evening drinks and washed up the cups, while the three of us waded through blood and gore......none of us got a meal break.....though I think we might have been made a cup of tea.....again courtesy of my daughter and I think I might have bit into a sausage roll on my trip down the corridor to theatre to bring a patient back to the ward.
I was certainly glad to see the back of that shift, and the staff vowed that they wouldn't work with me again on a Christmas shift.....personally, I blame the auxiliary who used the Q word.
I am sure that today it would be frowned upon (for Health and Safety reasons) to have children visiting a working parent on the ward.....but on that occasion she was a real help.
When I was the ward Sister I would send them off home to recuperate...it was much easier than coping with them in the work place....needless to say they would have to take the day off as time owed or holidays.
When I first started nursing......families of nurses were encouraged to come up to the ward and sit in the sitting room while you worked.....we used to let most of the patients go home for Christmas anyway.....so only those patients who were either very sick or elderly and unsupported would be in hospital. One year I was working the late shift on Christmas Day......the afternoon was very quiet and to be honest it was boring just sitting about.....we would make drinks for the patients and their relatives and offer them mince pies and such.....but nothing too taxing was happening. My hubby came up to the ward and brought my daughter who would be about 12 years old at the time.....hubby beggared off and left daughter with me.....he said he would be back at 8:30 pm to pick us both up off the shift. I was on duty with and enrolled nurse and an auxiliary nurse.....and to be honest for most of the shift that was enough......then somebody said those tragic words 'It isn't usually this quiet at Christmas'........now when I worked on the wards we never ever used the Q word.....it always presaged disaster. The words had hardly left the girls mouth when the telephone started to ring......emergency after emergency after emergency poured into the ward......I was running bags of saline through and turning back beds.... making up emergency case sheets.
I wasn't quite sure if I was coming or going it was so hectic. Most of the patients who were coming in were going to need to go to theatre.....and there was one very sick lady brought in who went to theatre on the ambulance trolley. My daughter came in very useful on that shift......she gave out the evening meals....collected the meal trays once the meals had been eaten.....made the patients their evening drinks and washed up the cups, while the three of us waded through blood and gore......none of us got a meal break.....though I think we might have been made a cup of tea.....again courtesy of my daughter and I think I might have bit into a sausage roll on my trip down the corridor to theatre to bring a patient back to the ward.
I was certainly glad to see the back of that shift, and the staff vowed that they wouldn't work with me again on a Christmas shift.....personally, I blame the auxiliary who used the Q word.
I am sure that today it would be frowned upon (for Health and Safety reasons) to have children visiting a working parent on the ward.....but on that occasion she was a real help.
