This has been melt-down week for me, that’s for sure. In usual Florence style, I haven’t listened to any of the wise words of those around me; Steve, Matt, Carla – even my wise old Mum, and I’ve tried to keep all those plates spinning in the air. It was only a matter of time before one or two of them whizzed off into the ozone, never to be seen again. The first plate to fall was the one holding the wedding dress (it would be, wouldn’t it?). I thought I’d been clever, keeping in touch with the bridal shop via email so that I had a clear record of what we’d discussed. I’d kept them in the loop with my weight loss and we’d arranged for a fitting last weekend. My mother was beside herself with excitement and insisted on coming with me, so that she could give me an ‘honest opinion’. She hadn’t seen the dress that I’d chosen up to that point as I knew she would choose me a nice big meringue number if she had her way, so I was expecting a whole bagful of criticism for the simple, flowin...

It’s been a couple of weeks now since ‘Denturegate’ – where I accidentally sent Mrs Wright’s nashers off for plastic surgery, and I’m still not fully over it. I know it might seem a small mistake when you think of all the things that can go wrong in a hospital (just look at the NMC hearings on their website to see some of the life-threatening mistakes that are made), but I really disappointed myself. I thought this job had helped me to mature and get over my propensity to cock-up in style, but clearly not.  I’ve been like this all my life. All the way through school I was the kid who couldn’t control her own limbs – tripping up in the dinner hall with a full plate of shepherd’s pie and gravy, knocking things off shelves as I walked past them, knocking people over even…you can just imagine. Being a bigger kid just added to the comedy and I got used to laughing it all off and got a reputation for being the class clown. I was determined to change that now.  Most of m...

 I thought that when I took this job on a busy hospital ward I would turn into Miss Efficiency – someone who would go about her duties in an effective and productive manner, someone who gives the impression of being in total control. Haha!! How wrong was I? I’ve clearly been watching too many episodes of Casualty if I thought that I wasn’t going to be affected by the people I am caring for –I know in my heart that that’s what makes me a good nurse but I’m not sure that all of my new colleagues ‘get me’ yet or whether they will try to change that?   It all started at the beginning of the week when a new patient was admitted. He reminded me of my late Grandad, only he looked frightened and confused. His slippers looked as though they’d seen better days and he had food debris in his not-so-designer stubble. We’re quite used to patients looking not quite their best when they come to us, but what struck me about this man was the raw fear in his eyes. He wouldn’t le...

This week I feel fepic (that’s effing epic for those of you who don’t know).  I don’t know if any of you reader’s have missed me, but I’ve been so busy with the new challenging placements, I have been neglecting you. So last week I thought it must be about time Charisma at the nursing agency gave me a break.  As luck would have it she was able to book me in for a couple of lovely days at Sunshine Retirement Village, my old stomping ground. It was lovely to see the girls again and some of the residents even said that they had missed me!  When I got there, I was called in to see the Manager. I was a bit nervous, I’d only just got through the door so I couldn’t have done anything wrong – yet.  It turned out that she’d been working with the local uni and had agreed to take some ‘specially selected’ student nurses on placement and that a new one was due to start later that morning.  She went on to tell me that the last one hadn’t worked out a...

More pills than a drug dealer! That’s how today felt.  It’s been a really tough one; possibly the toughest one in my short career so far and definitely one I will be recording for my revalidation. I won’t tell you the effect that it’s had on my bowels but let’s just say I won’t be needing my prunes in the morning. So what would make me feel like this? Did a resident die? Thankfully not. Did I accidentally harm a resident in my care? Thankfully not – I don’t think I could forgive myself. No…I made a medication error. I was back at Sunshine after a 10 day enforced break. Charisma told me that the Manager had barred me from the premises after I had ‘shown her up’ with my recent CQC/QVC bonding session. She told me not to worry, “she would soon want me back. Unless hell had frozen over and they were fully staffed, they’ll be understaffed again before long and can’t do without agency staff forever”, apparently.  So there I was knocking on the door this morning...