Awkward questions you've always wanted to ask someone who works in a specific job...

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I thought this would be a good way for us to get answers to those awkward questions we would never dream of asking someone to their face in their place of work.

These are questions relating to my life that i would love honest answers to.

Hairdressers - When someone with bad dandruff/psoriasis sits on your chair, do you shrug it off, or do you quickly have a look to make sure it's not lice? Are you able to tell the difference right away or does it need investigating? And do you really want to know what my plans are for the day, or would you rather work in silence?

Teachers - do you get annoyed when parents write in homework diaries that a specific piece of homework was too tricky for their child? Do you take it as an insult to your teaching skills?

Waiter/waitresses - do you expect people to offer to clean up their children's mess before they leave, or do you just shrug it off as part of the job? If you're busy and haven't had chance to clean a table yet, and a new customer came up and asked for a cloth to clean it, would you be offended?

I'm a trainee SLT so not quite sure if I'm qualified to answer any questions regarding that line of work yet.

But i have experience working in a Subway sandwich store, a library, a gym and as a cleaner. So i can answer any cleaning, book or sandwich questions that are burning away inside you all.

I quite fancy being a festival midwives at Glastonbury. I think its a well sought after position though.

Great thread! School Exams Officer here, quite boring compared to most, but am happy to answer any questions.

Accidental or you get people like me going blind and the like. I did always wonder, we always hear of them and think whyyyyy are you here?! haha but the girl at Leeds this year made me ask, I think that was a tent jobby but I was off radio this year mostly.

I always think I must annoy festival medics with my various accidents and allergies and then dropping more people off when on shift that are probably just too wasted.

I enjoy directing the ambulance buggys to scenes tho, maybe I should look into being a call handler....

You weren't at Royal Welsh were you? That team of medics I owe a massive thanks to for sorting out my OH

Viva Glastonbury police too, you always get a few non festival police trying to sneak in :D

Oh no fair,I can't tell you what I do

Used to be an actor though so can answer questions on that?

Doctors-at what point do you label someone a hypochondriac? And do you still use cheeky acronyms on patients notes?

One of my hospital colleagues told me a festival goer accidentally poked his eye out with a tent peg this year. Grim. Worst festival accident I've ever heard and I could tell you some humdingers.

Ewwww I only damaged my corneas, my sight returned fully by the end of the day after an iodine bath thing and a lovely medic flushing it and things until I could get to an optician, well scary but no tent peg!

MDoll, nope, I love turbulence! I think it's like riding a rollarcoaster

The only one when it's a pain is either when children get scared and if it's relatively bad, we're strapped down too, so can't go comfort them; or when it's during a meal service on a private jet, the food goes everywhere, then I don't have the luxury of airline cleaners afterwards, it's just me and a packet of flash wipes!

GPs or Pharmacists; is it really not a good idea to give nurofen to an asthmatic? What is worse - a temperature that you can't get down with calpol and a luke warm flannel or the risk of an asthma attack?

To the police: what do you think of the IPCC? (And are there any questions you want to ask me?

Missing bracket )

Thanks xapgania. Is it the same equation for ibuprofen?

Midwives and other HCOs: do you like caring for well-informed people who ask lots of questions and generally read up on things, or do they annoy you? I'm not talking about the ones who have self-diagnosed on Dr Google and then insist that they know better than you, but the ones who make some effort to keep themselves informed and come to appointments with some understanding of what's going on.

Or would you rather I they didn't bother and secretly roll your eyes at them?

mignonette just wow. What an amazing woman you are. Thank you for your posts on here. Tbh I can't actually come up with the words I want to say.

letsgomaths to answer your questions:

1. How much manual control is there over the rides? Can some of them be stopped, or brought back to the start, if a rollercoaster hasn't yet reached the "free fall" part?

Depends on the ride, some of the ones like pirate ships, spinny things etc can be put on full manual, although usually aren't with guests on. Rollercoasters, if there's a problem before the freefall bit, it'll be stopped, guests evacuated and then sent round the track empty, they can't reverse the lift hills.

1. Do you like to go on the rides yourself?

Some rides, I'm very picky. Going back to my fear of flying and control freak issues, I MUCH prefer rides with over the shoulder harnesses, lap bars are totally safe, but I feel too vulnerable. I also don't like rides that make your stomach "go" IYSWIM? That is part of my issue with turbulence too, actually...

1. Do people vomit on rides? If so, does the ride have to be taken out of service while it is cleaned up?

Yes, yes they do! Apparently the worst at the place I worked was the chair swing ride, because the queue loops round underneath the ride, so if someone's sick... well, I'll leave that to your imagination. But yes, the ride is taken out of service and cleaned, or that particular ride vehicle is, if there's more than one.

1. What incidents have you witnessed?

I was only on admissions, so didn't really see any. Only one I can say was when I was on the park as a guest, me and my friend were heading hime, and we saw bus loads of people coming in on the company buses. We thought "oh, it's an influx of hotel guests". It was actually the victims of a very nasty coach crash. The walking wounded were brought up to the staff areas near the park, for treatment (totally outed which theme park there, but that's fine - I no longer work there).

Thank you Hep. Am a bit .

I really like this thread because of the insight into other peoples lives and the chance to talk about aspects of work and life that sometimes can get a little lost or go unsaid. I would like to eventually do more work with people who are facing a shortened life and their families, one day but it's a little too soon after my own bereavements.

I want my patients to be informed. I hate it when a patient tosses down a handful of pills without checking them. I say "Did you know what you just took?" because mistakes can be made whether it be their mistake, nurses, doctors or pharmacists (rarely pharmacists though). I like my patients to know about side effects, what their pills look like and what dosage they are on. There are problems with patients not following drug regimes and this can help with that.

I like patients and relatives to know as much as me really about their illness and its treatment. The days of expert owned knowledge need to be over. Sometimes they don't want to know and its kind of 'make me better, I don't need to know the ins and outs' and I have to accept that but i struggle with it because it does go against my nature.

I'd never worry about somebody educating themselves about MI although sometimes interpreting the research is something that doesn't always go hand in hand with accessing it. Placing research into context is something that might have to be explained or the fact that our drug regimes may be different to somewhere else-all psychiatrists have their favourite drugs and treatments and 'pet' areas of interest and that may not coincide with what patients or family want, sadly. I have to negotiate and arbitrate (sometimes argue w/ medics) about what to do.

I hope some other Nurses come onto this post because I look like I am hogging the limelight

Don't be , please.

I have shown your wonderful post to my oldest daughter who was overwhelmed in the most wonderful way. Her father, my exDH (also two more of my children's father) died 18 months ago after a very short (5 month) battle with cancer. His death, while expected, happened very very suddenly, just before DD1 and DD2 were taking their A and AS levels and there have been so many questions that I simply could not answer for them (my own father died from a brain haemorrhage, so it was near instant and therefore different I think). Your words said so much and truly mean the world to us. To have you as a nurse would be an enormous privilege.

I think it's easier when women are well informed and involved in their care, you can have open, honest discussions when care planning together and they go away and think about their options. as well as knowledge about their care, they are engaged in their care working towards the best birth/outcome for them
(If the above is happening there are no hidden agendas, there is no 'I know best' and there is no sitting back with a lack of interest either, as all of these are quite common sadly.)

That means so much to me to read that Heps, it really does and I am very glad to know that it has helped your family and you.

I am sorry for your loss. That must be so very hard to see your children suffer and grieve and the feelings that losing your ex must have stirred up in you must have been painful also.

If you have a local hospice they will have team members who specialise in grief work with children or they can put you in touch with them. Please don't hesitate to contact them on behalf of your children or yourself. They can go through the illness of the loved one and answer in detail any questions you all might have that are more specific than i have addressed here.

I would urge anybody who is grieving to reach out to others, the support services such as Cruse, League of Compassionate Friends, the local hospice and Winstons Wish because there is a whole lot of help and support out there to be had. Never suffer in silence. The less mysterious and scary death and dying is, the better for all of us.

to you all.

I have a question for nurses! Does it make it hard to do your job properly if one of the nurses on your ward isn't up to scratch? Do you have to play catch up for them or end up carrying some of their workload? How do you manage in such an important job if you have a colleague you don't get on with or a boss who is horrible?

Therapist here, loving this thread !

Somebody way back asked if anybody ever tried to steal animals. It certainly happens in zoos. Reminds me of a time a few years ago some one robbed a penguin hopped in a taxi with it.It was found in town somewhere

Grandpa- I'm a nurse but now a ward manager, I absolutely do not tolerate staff who are not up to scratch. We owe it to our service users to put 100% into our work. A slack nurse who doesn't pull their weight can not only lower the morale of the nursing team, but also cause catastrophic events with our service users, ie suicide attempts, serious self harm.

Thanks Jelly and mignonette that's interesting. I didn't want to be seen as one of "those" slightly pushy know-it-all types. I just like to know what's going on in between appointments :)