Awkward (and other) questions about MNers jobs-following on from *Pinocchio's 1st thread.

[mignonette]

Following on from this thread by Pinocchio -

"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"

Pinocchio I hope you don't mind me C+Ping your original post but wanted you to have the credit for this follow on as is such a great thread!

nameymcfacechange

Many people call helplines about dire situations and lots talk about feeling suicidal. We encourage people to talk about suicidal feelings because the act if talking about it can be a huge relief.

If someone hints at suicidal feeling "I can't stand my life like this" or "Every day is a nightmare" we always ask if they're feeling suicidal.

To assess their risk you ask (worded more sensitively)

1. are you suicidal?
2. have you made a plan for how you would end your life?
3. have you gathered the things you need (e.g. Pills)
4. have you begun an attempt? (E.g. Taken pills / cut yourself)

The more they answer yes the nearer they are to suicide.

Helplines have different policies if someone is at risk of suicide. Some will stay with the caller through a suicide attempt and won't intervene without the caller's permission. Others would seek help for a caller if they have any details about their location.

I have taken lots of calls where suicide has been discussed but only three where the caller has attempted suicide on the phone. One of them accepted help. One refused help but someone arrived in time. One I don't know and that's hard.

The support you get afterwards varies. Some helplines are great at staff support and some are crap.

If anyone ever feels suicidal, calling a helpline can really help. Samaritans are open 24 hours a day 08457 90 90 90
(I don't work for Samaritans).

The midwife question, I genuinely don't mind at all being sworn at if the woman is scared, in pain or feeling out of control. I won't tolerate it if she is just being rude though. As for the mess, it's often the midwife who creates the mess not the woman so I only have myself to blame for the chaos around me!

I'm an operating department practitioner if anyone has any questions about that. Our patients often have some good questions for us but we don't really have much time to expand on explanations.

I have a question about school governors, what is your main role? Or does each person have a different focus?

Facinating threads, I'm only about half way through the first one, have learned loads!

I have a question for Estate Agents. How exactly do you value a property and why when I 'Zoopla' the property is it always a lower estimation than yours?

I'm currently a Career Management Officer in the Army, but have done lots of other military jobs if anyone is interested.

Namey Thanks! Sorry for the name mix up. So, would I just approach a local school?

MH folk, do you ever feel clients are wasting your time? Or shouldn't be there? I'm Bipolar II but I feel like when I see my consultant or my weekly psyc nurse visits I'm just nattering at them and feel embarrassed they've had to come all the way out to my house. The nattering does help tho...

terrortremor

Foster carers are recruited these days with the expectation that a placement could potentially be until 18 or beyond. Apart from emergency carers they are moving away from the distinction between long and short term carers in most areas as they push the goal of permanency for children. I know carers who have raised their children from toddlers to adults and where they have stayed past 18 or returned for uni holidays etc. Successful placements should be until 18 or thereabouts, it's never ideal when children have to be moved.

Didi I would definitely get a second opinion for a number of reasons. Firstly it may have been a junior orthopods who saw you (our most junior members of the team rotate around different specialties and may not actually have that much knowledge in Ortho).

Secondly there are loads of sub-specialties in Ortho so it would be better to see a consultant with an interest in young hip injuries. I agree with your GP - that is a pretty broad diagnosis made on examination alone and nowadays MRI allows us to see a number of injuries that some argue should be repaired in the young patient.

I've never known a boss to take it personally if someone asks for a second opinion. In fact, a second opinion is often offered if you can see a patient is struggling to accept your management plan. Either the second doc agrees with you, in which case the patient is more likely to comply, or they have another plan, in which case the patient gets the treatment that they are more happy with.

I'm a school governor so can answer that.

We've got complementary professional backgrounds, and we each 'adopt' a subject where we engage with it in more depth. There is also a series of committees, such as curriculum and standards, buildings, finance and HR and we each belong to one or two of those. We also have designated governors for child protection and so on, and they go on extra courses.

Estate Agents - do you lie?

Estate Agents let me rephrase the question -
would you say other Estate Agents lie?

LtEve we call my husband's career management officer the DisAppointer (RN) just to cheer ourselves up! (no disrespect to you though). Following on from that though it must be a very hard job to match jobs with officers and keep everyone reasonably content! I'd love an insight into your workload / method if that's possible?
Boffin I'm in the midst of writing a governor election piece but struggling to make my professional background fit. Any tips?

Leda I was looking at training to be an ODP but my last pregnancy has left physical problems,am I right in thinking I'd have to be fully fit?

These threads are so interesting. I've learnt a lot. I have no questions as yet but I'm an analytical chemist working in drug development if anyone has any questions. I've also done inbound call centre work, factory work and and bookkeeping/admin in the construction industry.

Szeli

The MH services are so stretched that I have no clients that are anything other than truly in need of our services. The most important part of my role is preventing relapse because of the chaos and distress it can wreak in a clients life. Therefore my visits to clients who are doing well are vital for me to try to keep them that way. So 'natter away' .

Sometimes clients are afraid of leaving the service (after a short term intervention such as ten weeks CBT) and that is natural. When I worked in a general CMHT we would work on that as a natural part of the therapy. We are always there for phone support post discharge and tend to refer on to MIND and other local voluntary agencies. They are wonderful.

Moosey

Yes, talking about suicide with a suicidal person will not increase their chances of doing it, a fear a lot of people have about talking to loved ones about it. I too have a similar framework- are they engaged in behaviours and actions that facilitate suicide? What are their plans? What has been stopping them from doing it? Would you like others to take responsibility for your safety until you feel able to? The latter doesn't necessarily mean sectioning as I consider voluntary admission preferable if possible. Most of my clients are sectioned/under supervision orders because of the nature of their history.

LtEve - With the current unemployment is recruitment up? How does trainiing in the HCP's work? Do you sponsor candidates or take them on post qualification? I had a nurse tutor who was a RMN and in the forces- the Falklands. We didn't ask him much about it because it was clear he did not wish to talk about it. Would he have been trained the same as me in the NHS?

Oh thank you, Mignonette

My IQ has soared from these posts.

I'm glad you didn't mind me starting another thread Pinocchio. I didn;t know whether to or not but your idea for this thread is so excellent it seemed such a shame to let it die.

A bridal shop question - do you do bridesmaid dresses as well? Do you ever see real fights over bridesmaids not wanting to wear what the bride has picked out?

Leda, remind me what you do for a living?

Hi Leda, I'm not that kind of CMO. I'm in unit (The 'Regimental' CMO) so my job is to ensure reports are written correctly, within the timescale and the Rules and Regs. I ensure that Career Courses are completed and registered. I help the guys write their Personal Objectives, Roles and Responsibilities, Posting and Employment Preferences. I gently let those down whose aspirations are way above their abilities. I suggest career enhancing courses and deployments. I try to push round pegs into round holes and remove the square pegs. At Regiment I would also run the promotion conferences and the 'kiss chart' which ranks the soldiers against each other when looking for promotion. Before JPA came in it would also have been my job to type up the reports as well, which was a pain in the arse.

.

Hi Mignonette. I'd say that recruitment was at 'steady state' at the moment. We haven't got any extras coming in, not more than we usually have. But there are an awful lot leaving - not just the redundees. Guys with 20, 22, 24 years experience that we would have expected to extend onto 37 year careers are leaving in droves, and sometimes with only a few weeks notice. Everyone is feeling the strain of trying to 'wear too many hats'. My 'actual' job title isn't CMO, but its the job I do most. I'm actually doing jobs that at a Regiment would be performed by 6 different people . Thankfully

I don't have that much insight into Military Doctors I'm afraid. I know that most of the ones I have had contact with were Doctors first, and then joined the military. Same with Dentists. At non deployable units the Docs are almost always civilian - some with mil experience, but often 'just' a doctor. My current Doc is ex RAF. Lots of qualified docs start off by joining the TA, and then move across. We employ a lot of civilian Practice Nurses and I have found them to be a good bunch, never had a problem with them and in a lot of cases it is easier to see them than the Doc.

Military Doctors are a strange breed. You get the ones that are amazing, completely on board with all the 'green shit', want to deploy and train and learn alongside their speciality. I had one once, a female that was one of only 3 military doctors trained and allowed to 'crack a chest' in a medical centre. She joined in with everything and volunteered for every deployment. Conversely, she was posted and replaced by a shit doctor who did away with the dispensary, because it was too much trouble, tried to force (with career threats) innoculations on unwilling soldiers, and diagnosed my "broken in 6 places ankle" as a 'nasty sprain' . He didn't last long, thank fuck!

I work as a department administrator in a secondary school; most of my job is organizing trips.

I'd like to know if you work in a shop do you get annoyed with people putting stuff back in the wrong place, or do you enjoy sorting it out? And if I can't be bothered to fold the jumper back up in the approved fashion would you rather I just left it flat?

Wango, first of all which sorts of parents do you tend to like best, and secondly, do you think the right people come in to ask for help in response to the bit on the bottom of trip letters inviting those who can't afford it to get in touch?

Ooh Wando, that is what I am hoping to do next year when my Military Service comes to an end. Can you give me an idea of the sort of thing you do and what quals/experience you would think were useful?

LtEve I cannot imagine a greater liability than an indifferent, incompetent Medic on deployment. What did you do without a dispensary- boil down willow bark into aspirin or is there a branch of Boots in Afghanistan ?

I would imagine Critical Care staff as being keen to learn battlefield medicine. The skills learned are invaluable.