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The Health Care Professionals' Lounge: if you've had a bad day, are sick of your job and need to vent, the lounge is open!

284 replies

Jacksmama · 05/05/2009 16:12

On another thread, a few of us who work as health care providers (of any sort) were talking about having days at work that make a career as a waitress or grocery cashier sound very appealing... so, patterned on the One-Child Tea Room (which, btw, is open to anyone regardless of how many children you may have), here is The Health Care Professionals' Lounge.

Being something of a Room of Requirement, The Lounge has squashy sofas, a bar stocked with booze of all kinds, an Aga for tea, coffee or hot choc, and a pantry/ fridge for nibblies or full meals. Calories don't count here, neither does trans-fat, or food allergies, and there are no hangovers the next day.

Come on in and relax. There is only one rule here: no fisticuffs. We are here to vent and talk about the assorted difficulties of our jobs. If you're a patient, please remember that we give large amounts of our time and of ourselves to health care, and work within the limitations and the frustrations of the health care system (wherever we may live). Our jobs are rewarding but also exhausting, and we frequently question not only the system but also ourselves. If you've received bad care, please speak to the person responsible, or start another thread - this is not the place for it. We're here with our hair down (or up in curlers, or slathered in a masque) and our feet up. If necessary, we will borrow Mellors from the Tea Room to have trouble-makers firmly and politely ejected.

Cheers!

OP posts:
Sidge · 05/05/2009 21:16

Can I come in please? Cake would be gratefully received, or chocolate, or wine, or crisps, or, well anything nice really...

I've had a strange day, and had to read 2 sets of child protection minutes which were truly awful and made me feel physically ill

Jacksmama · 05/05/2009 21:18

Oh dear Sidge. Welcome!

Here, have some relaxation! Sounds like an awful day.

OP posts:
Sidge · 05/05/2009 21:22

Ooh thanks Jacksmama

I am fairly relaxed now but after days like today I wish I had my job back that I did when I was at uni, working in a tea and cake shop. Twas the best job ever!

Jacksmama · 05/05/2009 21:25

I have those days too...

OP posts:
treedelivery · 05/05/2009 21:34

Me too

I loved my job in a dept store. It had it's bitches and it's pressures, but I never felt like running out and going to live on an island so as to avoid contact with humans.

Jacksmama · 05/05/2009 21:40

Here, have a straw, Tree. It looked like you were going to overbalance that bottle and knock yourself out

I didn't know we had stuffed olives. (Eeeeewww) Must make sure I avoid those...
Oh, here's a good nibbly: cream cheese-stuffed jalapeno peppers!
Tree, when you're done with Mellors, nudge him over here, k?

OP posts:
Sidge · 05/05/2009 21:48

Does the foot rubbing guy do neck and back rubs d'ya reckon?

BooRadders · 05/05/2009 21:50

Any,"re-profiling" is where we have job descriptions changed and the structure of physio changed so that lots of us can be paid on a lower band under the guise of improving our service.

treedelivery · 05/05/2009 21:53

The fioot rub is for sidge - you win the shit day contest.

Prize is a foot rub and you don't have to have a bit of savoury to be polite. You can do cakes only, it is your right.

Rofl @ falling back and recieving bottle to the forehead. Thunk. I have probably none that y'know.

MellorstheGardener · 05/05/2009 22:01

Eh up. That Jacksmama is a very demanding woman. Right. Who's next?

AnyFucker · 05/05/2009 22:01

ooh, that is shit boo

treedelivery · 05/05/2009 22:02

and Boo

BooRadders · 05/05/2009 22:07

Well Any (or do you prefer AF? Or prehaps you don't like your name to be shortened,how presumptious of me...) to be honest, I'm not back yet so I'm in denial about it all! Reality will hit hard and fast!

Mellors.......what DID Jacksmam ask you to do then?

AnyFucker · 05/05/2009 22:18

you can call me what you like

treedelivery · 05/05/2009 22:34

I'd like to order buttery croissants and buttery toast and milky coffee and also tea for breakfast please Mellors.

I am dairy free to try help colic torn dd2, but I figure here a spell will make it ok.

Good night loungers, I am retiring the sleep den with memory foam 6ft bed with crisp sheets and a nanny for my dcs. Sigh.

thumbwitch · 05/05/2009 22:41

glad to see this has developed nicely - sorry to see that Sidge had a rotten day and that boo is being cheated out of her proper pay.

I used to love my job as a haematologist/ transfusion scientist but had to leave due to extreme stress and the fact that I was getting perilously close to swearing at the next arse who phoned me up to "chase results", which would have probably ended in a disciplinary for me. Work was great, environmental stress was shit. I believe it is still similar!

AF, I didn't realise physios had to do on call - what's that for then? What sort of thing do you get called out for, or will that out you as well, in which case feel free to tell me to mind my own.

I now do brutal beatings therapeutic massage for a living, and barely managed 3 months off on mat leave as well. But I cheated and started to work from home when I started up again because I couldn't at all afford to put DS into childcare and didn't want to leave him. All my clients were known from my previous 7 years clinic work, and they all came on the understanding that there might be a sudden interruption if the crying child upstairs got too out of hand.

Jacksmama · 05/05/2009 23:03

Boo, help yourself to Bolly - please don't wait to be invited .
And I just want to mention (not defensively at al!!) that Mellors, like The Lounge, is a pigment of our imagination magical and is thus more than capable of perfoming various tasks at once... ie. a neck rub, foot rub, shoulder rub - on three or more different women.

No, I don't know how he does it... but I don't care as long as I get a foot rub. Is there anything better than a good foot rub? Ahhh....

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thumbwitch · 05/05/2009 23:07

a pigment as opposed to a figment, hey - what colour pigment is Mellors then? I have in mind a general grassy green, although that could be due to the excessive romping in the lawnclippings....

Jacksmama · 05/05/2009 23:17

Thumb, I would love to work from home. That is, I would love to have the kind of house that would permit me to work from home. DH and I have talked about it. (He does similar work, but not the same as me - his area of specialty is actually pretty uncommon, but involves bodywork as well.) Anyway - we have seriously discussed selling our current house and trying to buy one that would permit us to have a treatment room at home so we could work out of our house. But ultimately we decided against it. For one, we weren't sure how we'd feel about our patients/ clients knowing where we live. Elementary safety issue (there are some real nuts out there, as we all know), as well as the fact that both of us have clients/ patients whom we would simply not want to invite into our home. I'm sorry if that sounds awful, but I think we all probably have to deal with some people professionally whom we would not want to know on a personal level. I would say I like over my 95% of my patients, and some I am very very fond of, but there is that small percentage whom I simply cannot bring myself to like. Working on them is hard enough. Working on them in my home would be intolerable.
And also - and we didn't think of this until someone pointed this out, because it would simply never occur to us to do something like that - if our patients/ clients knew we work in our home, what's to stop them from ringing our doorbell on a Sunday morning/ afternoon, evening, if they've put out their backs/ wrenched their necks/ you name it? I personally would never think of doing such a thing. But there are, apparently, people who would. DH and I both book our appointments ourselves (we haven't got a receptionist at our office) and he's had people phone his paging service late in the evening and leave messages saying something along the line of "yeah, I've hurt my back, I'm going to be at your office in half an hour, see you there" and actually expect DH to show up!! (He didn't, in case you were wondering... and the twat who phoned paged him twice more and then finally left a message saying "I guess you're not showing up... guess you're busy, huh?". (This being 8:30 pm on a Friday...)
So... when we looked at it from all angles, we decided against working in our home. We may still revisit the concept some day, but only for certain people we work on... not sure how that would all work, but anyway, we'll worry about that later.

Is there any Bolly left or did you problem drinkers guzzle it all lovely ladies chug it all down?

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thumbwitch · 05/05/2009 23:25

yes I know what you mean, JM - which is why I decided when I did it that I wouldn't be taking on any new clients, only working with my well-known ones. There is the insurance aspect to consider as well.

I have to say, though, that I have never had people "doorstep" me - but I was pretty stringent about how my working from home would work - as in, maximum of 2 clients per day, one morning, one afternoon, no evenings. Saturday morning only, no Monday. This was because of DS, no other reason - well the no-evening thing was more for DH, tbh.

I don't have a dedicated treatment room either, I set up in our living room when required. Obviously this would be harder for you - my massage table is pretty portable.

Your DH's client sounds like a nut - we had one of those try it on with the osteopath at our clinic - just wandered in and expected to be seen immediately, and when he was told the osteopath was busy, expected to get seen when that patient came out, despite the osteo having a full list for the day! But they are rare. (luckily!)

IwishIwasmoreorganised · 06/05/2009 10:22

Thumbwitch in a nutshell, physios are on call for emergency respiratory problems.

Hope you're all having good days today.

I've just been told that my Trust have renewed my parking permit - whooppee!

treedelivery · 06/05/2009 10:37

Jesus. A parking permit!

I got one at my old trust, after 10 years, its a city centre hospital parking nightmare ££16 parking per sift to park......then promptly left. Damm it!

IwishIwasmoreorganised · 06/05/2009 10:50
  • I don't like to be in the spotlight! I'm not too sure how important it is any more as I'm in Wales and so the parking's all free at my workplace now.

If they'd not renewed mine I could have just parked in the visitor spaces I suppose. The trouble is that now it's free everyone drives so spaces are at a real premium. Not a problem when I arrive at 8am, but a real pain if I'm off site for a meeting then have to go back.

Jacksmama · 06/05/2009 12:53

16 POUNDS for parking for one shift???? Holy crap. I'd hope they add that to your pay!!

How's everyone this morning?
I'll be off-line for a bit - flying home today - so whoever would like to host The Lounge in my absence...

Don't talk about anything too interesting while I'm off!!

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nevergoogledragonbutter · 06/05/2009 12:58

yes, on call physio involves suctioning shite off peoples lungs and other respiratory type stuff. nothing an itu nurse couldn't do imo.