"I owe my life to a clerical assistant"

[user1472419718]

I keep seeing Unison adverts on the internet recently, highlighting the work that people in the public services sector do.

They have titles such as "I owe my life to a clerical assistant" and go on to detail the individual contributions of different public sector workers. But whilst I agree that every role is essential, ultimately the clerical assistant who created the ambulance rota did not save this man's life, and I feel this undermines the actions of the paramedics, doctors, nurses and other medical professionals.

Another example has the title "A cleaner helped teach my Chloe her times table". Again, whilst the cleaner is an essential public services worker at the school, this statement undermines the teacher and teaching assistant.

AIBU or am I just missing the point?

[TaliDiNozzo]

The adverts are genius. I agree with (and am buoyed by) the overwhelming comments. The OP and oliversmumsarmy I suspect are deliberately missing the point of them which is sadly disappointing and really rather silly but it's lovely to see such wonderful comments and appreciation.

I work in the NHS in a non-medical role and I suspect I will be thinking about this thread for a while.

[WorraLiberty]

I love these adverts.

For example, a lot of people look down on 'Bin Men'/Refuse collectors and street sweepers.

Yet they never stop to think that without them, we'd be overrun with rats and disease.

The ads are just a way of making people stop and think about how we all play a part in society.

[MissHooliesCardigan]

I was a CPN for a long time in a team for young people with psychosis and our receptionist was a vital member of the team. A lot of our service users were extremely anxious when they came for an initial appt but she completely put them at ease - would make them a cup of tea and chat to them. She was brilliant at informal triaging - because she knew subtle signs that someone wasn't very well and would alert a clinical member of staff that they needed to be seen straight away. She was amazing at diffusing tricky situations and often service users who were really paranoid would trust her more than the doctors and nurses because she didn't have any 'power' over them.
Sadly, she died of cancer last year and a lot of the patients were really upset and over 200 of them (including many who were discharged years ago) came to her funeral. She made a huge difference.

[Pisssssedofff]

I am old enough to remember what happened when the refuse collectors went on strike believe me that wasn't pretty

[Obsidian77]

I like these adverts because it highlights the crucial roles of so many people in keeping things running. I lived for several years in a developing country and can't overstate how well-run, as a whole, the NHS actually is.
A good friend was a clinical manager at a large city hospital in that country and the problems she had to deal with were unbelievable; dirty, cockroach-infested wards, frequent outbreaks of diseases such as klebsiella, rotas not drawn up correctly, millions of pounds worth of equipment awaiting repair, no power in the operating theatres due to generator failures (power cuts were common) which meant most surgeries were cancelled and surgeons had to do emergency surgery by the light of their mobile phones, fraud, corruption and mismanagement meaning that stocks of equipment and medicines often ran out etc etc
I think it's easy to take for granted how many people have to do so many things well for a massive complex system to work well.
I'll probably never even know who the people are that enable me to have access to world-class health facilities, so I won't be able to thank them personally, I'm glad these adverts offer some recognition.

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

I have to agree that a good receptionist is absolutely worth their weight in gold (and all the other admin and "back office"/background workers). I used to work in a clinic and we had a couple of receptionists who were not that great, resulting in lost clients - whereas most of our receptionists were just brilliant, so polite and doing their best always to help out not only the clients but also the clinic staff.

[iloveeverykindofcat]

Totally amused. I've worked in university where the admin was haphazard, badly distributed, and the person sort-of-in-charge was difficult. I am currently working in one where we are lucky enough to have one dedicated administrator for our (small) department. She is brilliant. Everything works better. If she ever leaves I will cry.

[JellyBelli]

These adverts are aimed at people who dont get it, and they still dont get it. If you are the kind of person who feels offended and devalued by these adverts, then you wont make a good team leader, surgeon or paramedic.
They need to get on with their job, confident that support staff have done theirs.
Staff that need constant strokes and reasurance about their status undermine their own effectiveness. Its a sign of immaturity and a lack of self confidence.

[FruitCider]

it doesn't matter who cleans, who nurses, who does the admin ultimately unless a doctor starts to treat a patient then nothing gets done

It's not doctors who treat, they diagnose. In my role, there are only gp clinics twice a week! If I get a patient come under my care in between clinics it's up to me to decide what medication to give, under PGD. I can give paracetamol, diazepam, lofexidine, chlordiazepoxide, almost anything really. If I need methadone or buprenorphine writing up I email a doctor a copy of my consultation, they start an electronic prescription and send the paper copy to pharmacy. Healthcare is changing, nurses are more autonomous. But I could bet any money that I couldn't give out these meds confidently without the eyes and ears of my health care assistants! I just give meds really, they work much harder than me!

[FruitCider]

Although, as an ex hospital lab scientist I do rather take issue with being called a technician.

Sorry for causing offence! Point noted.

[ThumbWitchesAbroad]

No, no offence taken :)

[FiveGoMadInDorset]

You and Oliversmummy are spectacularly missing the point, I worked as an NHS admin but I won't bore you with all the boring details of what I did that enabled our doctors to concentrate on seeing patients.

I will also be supporting my husband through cancer this year and will have admiration from the Dr at the top to his admin team in helping us through the next stage

[Oliversmumsarmy]

Sorry to feel a little jaded with the healthcare system but given what we have been through this year and nearly ended with dp giving up he just didn't want to battle the system any more.

When an admin person tells dp who is stood in front of them that he is dead and no he can't get any more insulin or any other prescriptions as they have deleted his files and archived them as he is dead and so won't need any more prescriptions without a hint of irony or even just acknowledging what they are saying is complete rubbish am I supposed to think the admin department is working.

When your dp visits the dr to diagnose his symptoms 12 times + a week in hospital because he is so ill and weak he can hardly walk, (kept telling him it was because he had broken his leg) am I supposed to jump for joy that the doctors are doing their job.

When the pharmacy (prior to his reported death) don't fill the prescription but give out bags of stuff he hadn't ordered. It is more than annoying

So maybe if a few of you had been through what dp has been through you might just miss the point of the adverts.

What I was trying to say was it doesn't matter how clean the wards are if a qualified professional healthcare worker mistakes end stage bowel cancer for the symptoms of a previous broken leg it does not fill you with much confidence.

[CanuckBC]

Oliversmumsarmy, (((hugs))) understandable that you are a bit off the medical system right know. That is probably the understatement of the day.

I hope your husband was able to get the care he needed and the pharmacy fixed there horrific error.

That must have been he'll olive through. I hope your family is healing now, both mentally and physically.

Re the subject at hand, if one cog in the wheel is broken things don't run smoothly. Be it with medical, legal or whatever the profession. If something is off everything else goes sideways.

I am from Canada, so haven't seen the ads but think the concept is a good one. It will go over some peoples heads and will make others think.

[CanuckBC]

Argh! That one line should say " That must have been hell to live though. Damn autocorrect.

A couple of there's should be theirs. Sorry one my iPhone and typing quickly. Really should have previewed. ☺️

[albertcampionscat]

Haven't rtft, but has anyone mentioned the story of the cleaner at NASA in the '60s who, when asked what their job was, said 'putting a man on the moon'? Yabvu.

[Motherfuckers]

Yes, albert that story may have been briefly touched upon at least 3 times It is a great example though, sadly, probably lost on the OP and oliversmum though.

[Maireadplastic]

I believe that there are bullshit jobs and non- bullshit jobs. Non-bullshit jobs are the ones where we'd be in a real mess if people didn't turn up to do the, bullshit jobs are ones when the world still turns if no one does them (for some reason I always think of those who work in advertising at this point in my theory).
Most of the jobs in these ads are non-bullshit jobs. Most of us have bullshit jobs (I say this as an opera singer, conductor and vocal coach.....)

[BowieFan]

I think the ads are great. I can see why some people can't pick up on what they're saying but, to me at least, they're highlighting the fact that the NHS needs every one at every level. It's not undermining doctors or surgeons, but it's saying that a clerical assistant doing their job to the best standard allows medical staff to do the same.

[albertcampionscat]

Sorry motherfuckers!

[CordeliaFrost]

Great adverts, highlighting the importance of the 'whole machine', which with just one vital bit missing, won't operate as smoothly, or indeed at all.

My mom is a GP, and the senior partner of her practice. One thing she always makes clear to new staff (in particular any new GPs joining), is every member of staff is valued the same, regardless of what they do, because very role is vital.

[Sara107]

I haven't seen the ads, but I think it's great that the people in the background are acknowledged as well as the front line staff. We often hear, when government cuts are being implemented that front line numbers (police, nurses, ambulance etc) will be maintained, it is 'only' office staff being cut. But the reality is that the work that these people do will have to be picked up by somebody else. I work in a multinational company and functions such as HR and Procurement are continuously being cut back. So we spend an increasing amount of our time learning how to do things incidental to our actual jobs like ordering stuff - the work still has to be done but it is done inefficiently, by people who don't have a clue what they are doing, and are mainly on a much higher pay grade than the old purchasing clerks were. If you tie your doctors and police officers up with that sort of stuff, they are not doing the work that we would expect them to be doing.

[QuackDuckQuack]

What really strikes me about this discussion is that we regularly hear 'we're going to cut 40% of admin in hospitals' or 'we'll find 5% efficiency savings each year for the next 4 years'. It sounds like a good idea not to cut front-line staff, but cutting office staff can only go on so far before before it has the same impact as cutting front-line staff because they have to take on the admin tasks themselves.

[Eiram49]

I agree with most; all have a role to
Play and all should feel valued - strangely, when reading through the posts, I noted a Mirriad of professions, all essential but not once did I see Social Workers acknowledged. We do a difficult job, in difficult circumstances and most often, the great work we do goes unrecognised .

[FruitCider]

Eiram I personally don't work with any, but couldn't do their job! They are amazing!