When someone unexpectedly gives you a gift, it makes all the hard work worthwhile and that is what happened today. She said the bunch of peach coloured roses were because I am always doing things for others and to be appreciated in that way is pretty good. Today was the third day of the in-house leadership course we have designed for her team; well I say we and actually I have to admit I have designed and so far delivered it myself. Our theme for the day was problems, how to solve them, conflict and how to manage it and negotiation skills. It is a real treat to be facilitating a team to develop their skills in this way, and to be part of the work they are doing to redesign their service. So often people are scared of change, and all too often we leave people who we expect to be the change agents to just get on with it, take the flack and in effect manage.

Because I was at our trust headquarters which is in the middle of a large shopping area, I caught the extent of the Christmas shopping thing which is going on at the moment. It feels as if the shops are busier, earlier than they were last year; I may be wrong but that is how it feels. What I don’t like is the increase in traffic that seems to have brought to such areas but the fact is that the car is pretty much king. It has been pretty cold here over the last week, that is cold and dry and in a way that adds to the winter pre-Christmas feeling which perhaps you wouldn’t have if it were 10 degrees warmer.

Christmas
Leadership
NHS

The best thing about starting this blog has been that it has encouraged me to read so many other peoples blogs. People from all over the world, people living their lives in all kinds of different ways. I often find myself either strongly agreeing or else disagreeing with the point of view put across, sometimes I am amazed at the stuff people are prepared to write about. But the main thing is the insight it gives me into the culture of others.

For the first assignment for my course I am going to be writing an essay about organisational culture. I have worked for quite a few different healthcare organisations all within the NHS but all of them have different and unique cultures from each other. That has little to do with the kind of job you are doing, or the fact that the building you work in is big or small, or provides acute or community care (well perhaps that is a bit different), but in the main it is about the people who work there. It is about history, and about what people expect of each other, it is about behaviour and what is considered normal for that particular organisation.

But culture is not just about where we work, it is about our upbringing, about the communities we live in, about the faiths we follow (or not), about our politics. That I think is what I like so much about life here in blogland, that and getting such a great insight into lives that I wouldn’t normally find out about. For example, I have in the last week learned more about Thanksgiving and what it means for an average American family. I have found out that the day after thanksgiving was black Friday when everyone went shopping. I have also found out that people who are part of the Mormon community stock their cupboards incase of a disaster. Thanks for that Nemesis, and incase of any impending disaster I know to go to the local Church of Latter Day Saints and follow someone home for supplies!

I am also enjoying an insight into the workings of the average American hospital, and finding out that while lots of things are different, the patients are pretty much similar the world over and as nurses we are all pretty much dedicated to the work we do. Even me who is a nurse manager and went back to work after 10 days to find 99 emails in her inbox!

The whole issue of the NHS treating peoples so called self inflicted illnesses has been a recurring theme this last week or so. As a nurse, I have always considered it part of the job to try not to discriminate against people because they are fat, smoke, drink, have unsafe sex etc. Just because I don’t think I would ever consider abortion for myself, doesn’t mean I haven’t been present and assisted people having abortions (I know that abortion is contentious and pregnancy isn’t an illness). Just because I don’t smoke, doesn’t mean I haven’t bandaged the amputated legs of people who lost their legs through smoking, or who have had heart attacks due to smoking and obesity.

If we stopped caring for people who had contributed to their disease in some way, perhaps hospitals would become a more pleasant place, as they would pretty much be empty. People are becoming increasingly self righteous on these matters but I would challenge the idea that discriminating against people on the basis that they are too fat for a hip replacement or that because they have been smokers in the past and might relapse they shouldn’t be given the chance of heart surgery. Actually it is not as simple as that, it pretty much never is. People go on about ‘lifestyle choices’ but are these actually choices? Who chooses to kill themselves though alcohol abuse, cigarette smoking, drug abuse, unsafe sex? Ok so some people do lead pretty reckless lives, but who are we as healthcare providers and members of the public to judge the behaviour of others? It seems to me that judging is something we have become pretty good at, and often we do it without giving a thought to our own lives.

I am not so naive as to think that some rationing does not need to take place, but it is time for people to recognise that each case should be taken on it’s merit rather than making such blanket statements such as the one made in Suffolk this week (link above).

NHS
Healthcare rationing

So the last day of my week long holiday (if you don’t include the weekend), and it has been great to be at home on my own for a good part of the time. It is pretty much the first time since I had my son almost 15 years ago that I have had time to myself like this and I have enjoyed the space it has given me.

Yesterday hubby took the day off and we went Christmas shopping to Lakeside and made a pretty good start to the long list of presents we need to buy for family and friends. It seems likely that by 24th December I will have spent pretty much the usual amount of money, and the shops were pretty busy yesterday so I would think that it will be an average Christmas for retailers. Of course they will all tell us how badly they are doing, and that the bosses and shareholders will be destitute by new year; I don’t believe them. Now I just need to find some good places to keep all the bags until I consider it time to start wrapping the gifts, and that cannot happen until sometime in December. Yesterday I saw a tree in someone’s front garden with lights on, for goodness sake get real; it is not time yet.

One of the great icons of British football is seriously ill in hospital and is according to his doctors likely to die today. I do take exception though with the media’s obsession with portraying George Best as dead before he actually is. Pretty much without exception all today’s papers appear to contain obiturary type articles about him, the only good thing about that is that they are at least showing picures of him as a healthy footballer and in his better years since rather than the ill and frail man he has become since his liver transplant operation.

My other beef against the media is that they have been extremely critical of him as an alcoholic womaniser in his later years, now I am not suggesting that these are good traits, but in my mind no one sets out to become an alcoholic and to ruin their own health. These are the journalists who spent their time trying to get George to drink and then gleefully took pictures of him drunk. Now he is at deaths door however, they can’t help but fall over themselves to lavish masses of praise and adulation at his feet. The only problem is that he is now unconscious and can no longer hear that praise. Alcoholism is a disease, it is time that people realised that rather than glamorising it’s excessive consumption and perhaps it is time for some of our hypocritical media to get off their high horses and accept that fact.

George Died at 12.55pm today, I really hope he rests in peace.

Shopping
Alcoholism
George Best

Goes everywhere, take it from me. At one stage when I had been cleaning the roller and brush it was all over my kitchen sink then I found it on my kitchen units. At least it was a nice shade of pink by then and I think I have got rid of it pretty well; certainly it is removed from my feet (and I was wearing socks).

It occurred to me tonight as teen son and I re-assembled his room (well I did the work and he stood chatting), that more than half of our electricity bill much be down to him. He seems to have more electrical gagets than we have in the rest of the house. Infact the other week we saw a lovely big fridge with an inbuilt LCD TV in a local electrical shop and he thought it might go nicely in his room. Not sure where he would have stored it, but I think he was only half joking.

Now I have been away from work for a week and have been pretty busy with it, I am beginning to wind down a bit from work thoughts. There is so much going on all the time at work right now that it is very difficult to completely forget work and get into holiday mode (especially when you aren’t somewhere sunny and hot). Tomorrow hubby and I are off to hit the Christmas shopping crowds; what joy.

And plenty of them; teen son has a dart board in his room, and from the state of the surrounding wall he doesn’t actually ever hit the thing! As I filled said holes with a ready made filler which I bought in Wickes I wondered if it wouldn’t be better to call in a plasterer. Mind you I am going to put the dart board back, so no real point. However I am going to see if I can find some kind of wall tiles, perhaps made of cork to protect the wall in future; perhaps he might begin to hit the board if he is actually allowed to hit the wall!

I am off soon to buy the red paint, he has chosen a shade called Salsa Red 2, which has to be mixed at the paint mixing counter. I had hoped that when faced with a whole dulux book of paint shades, that he might pick some kind of shade of blue or purple, but no such luck, so Salsa red it is. Having a red room doesn’t seem to have affected his mood in the past as he is pretty laid back for a teenager of nearly 15, much more so than I ever was.

I was a very angry teenager, and in fact still angry in my early to mid twenties; I don’t know why but I think I was a nightmare particularly to my mother. Part of it seems to be that we have very similar personalities, and reacted in the same way, essentially by shouting when we were annoyed. Of course I am a much more chilled human being now, but still have the reputation amongst my family for door slamming. My philosophy is why shut the door quietly if slamming it will make more of a statement!

And of course, I am thankful for lots of things; family, health, work; all the old cliches. I have in the past sent the odd virtual card and I have received an email inviting me to send a virtual thanksgiving card. Of course I am not American and don’t actually know any American people in the real world, and if I did I am not sure I would be going down the virtual route. Apparently though there are plenty of things to celebrate during November:

Holidays…
23rd What Do You Love About America Day
24th Thanksgiving Day
25th Shopping Reminder Day
26th International Aura Awareness Day
29th Electronic Greetings Day
30th Stay Home Because You’re Well Day

November Is…
National Family Stories Month
National I Am So Thankful Month
National Adoption Month
National Family Caregivers Month
National Georgia Pecan Month
National Peanut Butter Month

Of course when they call something a holiday, I am assuming that most are not actual holidays, after all who ever told their boss they were taking a day off on 26th November for International Aura Awareness Day, mind you, perhaps it is worth a try!

I am never happy to concentrate on one thing at a time, why do one thing when you can do three would be my philosophy. This week I should get the opportunity for some fun things to do, as well as some less exciting; after all I am on holiday from work. I should also get plenty of chance to update my blog, if I can think of enough thrilling things to say of course.

This morning I have been sorting out a large pile of mail which I had stacked up on my dining table, but which had to be removed yesterday to allow 5 people to fit round the table (you can immediately tell that I am not averse to eating surrounded by stuff on a normal day). It is quite shocking just how much rubbish comes through the post these days, in amongst the usual bills and bank statements there was an assortment of special offers for Christmas, applications for credit cards and loans (as if I don’t have enough debt) and other circulars. I have pretty much filled my recycle bin and had fun with the shredder (what a sad life this woman leads you are quite rightly thinking).

At the same time I have been having a look at the TV programmes the BBC have on offer on a weekday morning, and essentially it is all about buying, decorating and selling homes. The decorating bit might be useful as tomorrow I am going start on the fun task of painting my teen son’s room. Sadly he wants to keep the red and white Arsenal football theme, and red paint is quite visible when you get it over you (and I will get it over me, never fear).

I have begun some reading on organisational culture for my assignment though am not yet fully into it, mind you reading a text book like that while lying in the bath, as I did this morning is pretty sad I have to admit. I guess this is how my life is to be over the next 2 years, but it is weirdly compelling stuff!

Lastly for today (well apart for the usual cooking chores) I will be going off to town to pay a couple of bills; I am feeling compelled to do something old fashioned rather than the usual internet banking thing. A stroll around the shops will also be called for, after all it would be rude not to as they will be near to the bank! As you can tell I am not intending to give much thought to the NHS if I can help it, but you never know!

Your Power Color Is Gold

At Your Highest: You are engrossed in passions that mentally stimulate you.At Your Lowest: You seek thrills and neglect what’s important in your life. In Love: You see dating as adventure and approach it with an open attitude. How You’re Attractive: You passion for life makes others passionate about you. Your Eternal Question: “Am I Having Fun?”

What’s Your Power Color?

Obviously, because I am a manager I have an easy life; late starts, long lunches and sit at meetings most of the day skiving while others do all the work. Shame it isn’t actually like that, and anyway I have been on study leave for most of the week. Today was the last day of my learning burst, and of course as I am now a manager I am not used to working those Saturdays that I worked as a real nurse.

It has been great to get stuck into the whole student / learning thing this week, mind you at times it has been quite confusing, and anxiety provoking. After all when a group of people get together in this context it is quite likely that they will wind each other up about assignments etc. Tonight though I feel pretty good about the whole thing, if a little exhausted.

The enormity of the prospect of all the work I have to do for the course lies before me, along with the prospect of juggling a full time job and running a household, it will probably be quite mad, but no doubt fun. For my first assignment I am going to do something about organisational culture, something I am quite intrigued about. Having worked in several organisations within the larger NHS I can honestly say each place has a different feel to it and what makes it like that? I also need to start putting together a reflective journal and a research log, both of which should be a bundle of fun!

I have raided the library for reading material so have no real excuse for getting down to it, and a meet up with most of my student group on 9th December to spur me on. Tomorrow though will be a family day as I have my parents coming over for Sunday lunch; roast beef etc. Should be fun as I haven’t yet done the shopping or cleaned any part of the house, so an early start for me tomorrow. I like a challenge and tomorrow will be no exception!

I have to come clean here, my experience of art is pretty limited. We are not people who spend our weekends wandering around art galleries having our cultural senses aroused. But do you know what I could get to like it, because it really is quite an interesting way to spend a day, or at least part of one. Our trip to the National Portrait Gallery was to get us to think about how power and leadership can be demonstrated within visual art. But for someone like me, who loves history actually seeing the centuries depicted in this way was pretty interesting. Some observations: Tudor and Stuart people were in the main pretty fat, and often quite ugly. If the artists were trying to pick up some of their ‘better sides’ then they pretty much failed. People appeared not to be allowed to smile until at least the nineteenth century. I particularly liked some of the more modern 20th Century photos and paintings, one observation in the exhibition entitled Heads of Government, Tony and Gordon appeared not to be part of the British Government; is that telling us something?

Eating a proper lunch is not something I get time for on a normal working day, but there was a need to recharge batteries, rest our feet and debrief, so we found ourselves a pub across the road from Trafalgar Square. Well you have to continue the cultural experiences of the capital city don’t you?

I have still to completely work out the whole thing about linking today with the course, and my hubby thinks the whole thing is a complete skive; maybe it was, but it was a fun skive!

Today I am back to being a student, and I have to say that this whole thing about moving from being the busy manager in the NHS to being a post graduate student is quite a challenge. We all lead increasingly busy lives, and as I have alluded to many times on here, working in the NHS often feels like running up the down escalator; in fact I wonder why I am not slimmer!

Today though was day 1 of the second ‘learning burst’ of my MSc in Strategic Leadership, and boy is life different out there in the world of academia. But actually the laid back lifestyle we need to adopt for these days is necessary, otherwise how will you have the time to absorb what you are learning, to begin to think new thoughts, to reflect, to discuss ideas? It is just really hard to change from fast mode to slow mode; after all I am not some kind of computer game. My mind was still half on work, and when you have a busy job it is hard to let it all go, to begin to leave work behind and allow yourself to move onto other things.

It was however a very interesting day as we have been embarking into that mystical world that is research; that whole why, what and how thing which I have found so hard to get to grips with in the past. We started by exploring ideology and what that means in terms of what is real for different people, their values and beliefs and dare I say what literature there is that might support them.

Tomorrow we are off to the National Portrait Gallery, to look at images of power and control; now that should put me firmly out of work mode - I hope!

NHS
Leadership
Part time Post Grad

Generally speaking my son, who will be 15 in February is reasonably sensible; but today he did something which made me wonder. At 4.30, just as I was preparing to finish up some paperwork and emails before I am out of the office for 10 days (study leave and annual leave, of which more later), my mobile phone rang. It was teen son, who began to tell me he had fallen on the way home from school and who now had a cut on his head, other cuts and a big headache. Immediately wondering if a trip to A&E might be called for, and immediately thinking of the long wait etc. I asked him if he thought he had been knocked out, well he didn’t know he told me, as he was playing some game with his friends where they take it in turns to make themselves virtually faint. Only usually the didn’t lose conciousness.

Voluntarily inducing fainting attacks? Are they crazy?

I managed to get home without crashing the car and killing myself or anyone else, and found him feeling very sorry for himself. A large lump the size of an egg on his forehead, grazes to the nose and a swollen lip, no apparent concussion, so cleaned his wounds applied a cold compress and gave him pain killers (what do you expect? I am still a nurse).

This has apparently been a way of passing the time on the journey from school, what I wonder happened to playing football? Mind you his friends (and he) were suitably freaked out, so hopefully they won’t do it again.

Tomorrow I start my second ‘learning burst’ on my course, and then have a week’s holiday. I am going to be doing some decorating, probably some studying and yes, it is that time - I am going to start my Christmas shopping!

I remember when the whole them and us thing which goes on in the NHS was about nursing versus those nasty doctors who like to treat you as handmaidens doing the jobs they wouldn’t want to be bothered with. But now it refers to all clinical staff versus the management, or may be that is because I am no longer a ‘real’ nurse and am part of the management.

Mental nurse (hope that is referring to what the person does for a living) has linked me to her (or might be his, I am not entirely sure) site, and obviously takes a pretty dim view of managers as a whole. I think this is pretty common and pretty much for the following reasons:

1. Managers often haven’t exactly recognised that they are one of them rather than one of us (as it were).
2. Managers consider the meetings they go to and work that they do in some way highly special, so don’t tell the workers what it is they do or what goes on at these secret meetings.
3. Managers really do believe that the proper work goes on at the patient bedside and that what they do is nowhere near as interesting.
4. Managers spend alot of time sticking up for real clinicans to their managers, but sadly the nurses / therapists / doctors don’t see that bit happening.

I would urge NHS managers, no matter how busy / important / stressed they are to make sure that they connect properly with the main workforce. I would actually suggest that their is very little they do which cannot be fully discussed, and viewed by an ordinary nurse. I would also urge managers to keep properly in touch with their workforce whether that is by meeting with them regularly to explain exactly what they are up to or by spending time on the ward / out in the community with them. No one should be too busy to do such a thing in my opinion but then of course if I have to be called a manager then I am a good one!

NHS
Management

Generally speaking, I am a half full type of person who always tries to see the best in everyone and to put across the positive side of any challenge, but that has been sorely tested this week. At times it has felt that I am part of some big conspiracy film as many of the days this week have felt like a surreal dream. It all stems from discovering that 90% of the time I am allowed to get on with managing my team, including hiring and firing (though hopefully not too much of the latter) and then someone can come along and say hang on I am going to interfere here and there is nothing you can do about it. The emotions that generates in me include confusion, anxiety but most of all anger and that particular emotion is a very strong one not to mention emotionally draining.

Yesterday I laid my emotions for all to see (well a selected few) in my action learning session. I was asked some challenging questions by my peers about the way in which I manage myself and more importantly my relationship with my manager. Now don’t get me wrong, we get on extremely well, she has been very supportive doing some challenging times, but actually I don’t want, nor need to be her clone. I am able to manage my staff, to do my job and I don’t need interference at the level that it has recently been given. Now I am just going to have to get that across to her.

I made a brave attempt at it after I got back from action learning, but really needed to avoid the issue until my thoughts were clear, so it came out a bit jumbled. She has got the weekend, as I have to mull over things though and hopefully next week will be the start of some positive work.

Good news here, our SKY + has been delivered and hubby and teen son are happy. We still can’t get the satellite signal into our bedroom, but we will work on which wire does what this weekend. At least a sense of calm has been resumed and that is just what I need right now!