Mmmmmm nurses
My missus has spent a lot of time in hospitals.

When she was "nowt but a lass" she was unlucky enough to be run over, by a Reliant Robin no less, she suffered a broken shoulder and pelvis and really does have the scars of botched plastic surgery to prove it.

Of course in adult life, and after giving birth to two wonderful children, she developed arthritis in both hips. The worst hip was worn away to nothing so eventually it was replaced, however she still has a great deal of pain making it difficult to walk - she has basket of tablets to counter this pain, and tablets to counter the side effects of the pain killers, and more tablets for the side effects caused by those tablets.

However she does manage to hold down a full time job, whilst she was convalescing she went to college and did an access course, then went on to uni for 3 years doing both placements and normal lectures etc etc.

She's been working for 2 years now, her job ? Well she's a staff nurse on a cardiology unit, they get the guys in who have fallen down with a dodgy ticker. Sometimes we'll talk about work and I'll tell her my tales of daring do with dodgy servers and gormless users.

Then she'll tell me about the 30 minutes cpr she performed on an old lady who was going to die later anyway, she'll tell me about the druggies who have abused themselves so much that their heart is in worse condition that the old ladies, ever tried to find a vein on a herion addicts body thats not collapsed ? She'll tell me about the senile ones who shit themselves, the abusive old dears who dont have a clue where or when it is. She get two breaks a day, usually, if she is lucky she'll have one of them 6 hours late.

The NHS may be flawed, there are certainly not enough staff, but my wife and her colleagues do a damn fine job, she is truly my Florence Nightingale
(polar69, Fri 12 Mar 2010, 8:17, Reply)