Being sent to different nursing homes is starting to become the normal way of working now. Charisma from the nursing agency has sent me somewhere different again; and so I’m getting used to starting from scratch every few shifts. This time it was on a unit in a ‘challenging behaviour’ home she was sending me to, and I could almost feel her glee as she imagined them chewing me up and spitting me out. She likes to label does our Charisma, what with her 'EMI' and her 'challenging behaviour', maybe the agency ought to send her on a course labelled 'Challenging ignorance – for dummies who misjudge other people’? So I arrived at this new nursing home and as usual headed straight up to the nurses office. My welcome could only be described as frosty, as this huge bear of a man, wearing a belt full of keys like a prison warden, looked at me in surprise for what seemed like a full minute. He then proceeded to bark at me in a confused way asking who the hell I wa...

Well it’s been a funny old week. Last week I posted my CV online and I’ve had a great response. Everyone it seems, wants a nurse to fly their plane or lead their financial strategy. As flattering as it may be I don’t quite think I have the required skill set to become the Chief Financial Officer for a leading supermarket chain; if I’m hone st I struggle to figure out that my income has got to exceed my outgoings if I want to cool the intimate relationship I seem to have with my bank manager… Anyway, I digress. The week got better when I was invited to apply to become an agency nurse. Having spent the last 6 months working in the NHS I’ve worked with many an agency nurse and the stories I’ d heard have always been really positive. So I rocked up at the interview and lo and behold, ten minutes later I’m walking out with an induction plan and a uniform! Happy days! Ok, so maybe I shouldn’t have blurted out that my dress size was a ten when they got to the part of dishing ou...