I have been a nurse for more than 30 years, and was employed in a number of clinical and non clinical roles until March 2013. I worked for a variety of Primary Care Trusts almost from their inception until their demise.
The Health and Social Care Bill has now been implemented, but rather than viewing life from inside the NHS as I have until now, I am now an outsider. This will take some getting used to, but it may well be fun to have the freedom to think a little more outside the box.
The NHS may have made me redundant and to have retired me at the same time, but I am too young, life is too short and I don’t have enough money to sit idly by. I am going to try to go it alone and no doubt sometime soon will work again for the NHS. Though I somehow doubt my life will quite be ‘in the NHS’.
I am married, and have a 22 year old son who is in his final year at University. It is going to be something of a mission to ensure that he gets himself into gainful employment and is able to return to the family home only briefly.
I battle daily to ward off the evils of middle age spread by vigorously exercising and trying to watch my diet and alcohol intake (often as it passes my lips).
Comments on: "About Me (Updated April 2013)" (44)
Hi Julie,
Thanks for the words of encouragement.
I’ll see how it goes.
You’re absolutely right, it is obsessive.
I haven’t been this bad since I discovered Genes ReuniHOpefullt the novelty will wear off (a bit) in a cuple of weeks.
I wouldn’t bank on it! Thanks for the comments.
Hey very cool. It is great to see a nurse blogging! My name is Dave I am a Level 2 Theatre nurse in Australia. I keep my online life and work very separate, so if you visit my blog you will not think I am a nurse
but I am.
I will be interested to see how you deal with mixing blogging and nursing.
Great to see – I think 99% of my work mates don’t know what a blog is!
Well I am banking on the idea that my work mates don’t know what a blog is either. I try to be careful exactly what I say and often end up changing things because they might help identify me. I will take a look at your blog, and leave you a message there.
Hi,
like your blog very much and wondered if you (and any other NHS-based bloggers out there) would be interested in participating in an event I am running on 24th Nov to look at how the National Patient Safety Agency can use collaborative technologies to share issues and solutions more effectively across the NHS and encourage better knowledge sharing generally. If you are interested, please email, I promise not to divulge your identity unless you want me to!
Kind regards,
Clive
Hi there. I have been reading your blog with great interest. I am making a documentary that is looking at the role of nurses, the general standards of nursing care, what is expected of nurses and doctors under the various changes brought in to the NHS – and how things may have changed in this area in the last decade. I’d love to talk to you further about this, and any other readers who may want to tell me about their experiences. If anyone would be happy to talk to me, in confidence, that would be great. My number is: 07802 536795, or on dkidd@mentorn.tv
Julie,
Like your blog very much and posted a link in my post re: change of shift. If it’s alright w/you I’d like to link to you.
Little time to read w/nursing school and intern job, but will re-check your blog in the coming week. We have a holiday over here called Thanksgiving, so classes are cancelled for most of the week.
Third Degree Nurse
Hi, was pointed at your blog by a recent piece in The Times. What course are you doing? Your profile is spookily similar to a friend in the south west of England who is also doing a master’s. She is now underway with her dissertation.
Hi Simon, I am doing my masters in Strategic Leadership and start my dissertation in the new year. I am in the south but not south west!
Hi Julie
I’m a feature writer for the Daily Mirror. We’re hoping to published a spread of Christmas Day blogs for the Boxing Day paper and I wondered if you would be interested in doing one for us.
It would just be your musings and description of your Christmas Day, just the same as you would do in your blog. As well as yours there would be five or six more on the page.
Could you please email me back or call me on 02072933532 to let me know what you think?
Thanks, Matt Roper
Hi Julie
How do you fit it all in? Im also the parent of teenagers and doing my masters but there is no way I could fit a spell of blogging in as well! I would like to see your veiws on commissioning and whats happening in your PCT. Cheers John
Wow, Julie, check you out! I’ve been meaning to tell you that I love the look of your blog. You’re inspiring me to do an overhaul of my own! I’m glad to see that you’re doing well. Thanks so much for all the encouragement (and diagnoses) you gave me last year.
Nemesis xxx
Many thanks Miss N, great of you to say. I have also been meaning to tell you how pleased I am that you have got your new job etc. Will leave a message with you soon!
Hi Julie, and thanks in advance for your time.
I’m a Cardiff University student and am writing a study on citizen journalism and its impact on the journalism industry…
I’m hoping to distriubte a simple, email survey to 100 bloggers such as yourself and was wondering firstly, if you would be willing to participate? It would only need two to three minutes of your time.
Please drop me an email if your can spare me a moment, I look forward to hearing from you,
Many thanks again,
Kindest regards,
Dan
Julie, thanks for visiting my blog. thank you for that comment on my bloglog page.
Could you please publicise on MayDay for Nurses?
HELP Noreena Hertz GET EVERY PREMIERSHIP FOOTBALLER TO GIVE UP A DAY’S WAGES FOR OUR NURSES BY THE LAST DAY OF THE SEASON.
THE MONEY RAISED WILL GO INTO A HARDSHIP FUND FOR NURSES.
THE AWARENESS RAISED WILL HOPEFULLY MAKE THE GOVERNMENT GIVE NURSES THEIR DUE.
sign up on the website: http://www.maydayfornurses.co.uk
thank you in advance,
Dr. Noreena Hertz
Thanks Noreena, I have already mentioned this in one of my posts but will do so again.
Julie
Hi Julie,
I’ve join the alexa train, and have added your site to site to it. Come take a look then.
Hi Julie,
I have been following your blog for a while and love it. I may have retired but I still retain an interest in all that is going on in the NHS. I have added a link from my (very new) site to yours. One of these days I shall post about my management role undertaken before I retired
Kudos! Very informative article, keep up the good works! More power
philippinenurses
Hi Julie,
I was wondering if you’d be interested in posting any articles from the Nursezone.com website. There are lots of relevant articles for todays nurse. The great news is that using nursezone content on your site is no cost. We’d just like to have a link back to our site for those of your bloggers interested in finding a community of nurses, CE opportunities, travel nursing and other relevant nurse aids. A partial example of a nursing article is below:
Nurse Overcomes Cancer—Twice—to Provide Care to Others
By Nancy Deutsch, RN, contributor
Many people yearn to make nursing their career, but few have to battle the odds like Valerie Bush.
The Independence, Kentucky, woman, who was a medical technician for six years and a nurse’s aide “on and off forever,” waited until her children were raised to return to nursing school. When she finally entered the Gateway Community and Technical College, it was unbelievably stressful. Not only was the single mother dealing with her course work, but her father died, and her youngest daughter was dealing with medical problems, including bipolar disease.
Bush, now 42 years old, was “disgustingly healthy when I started” school in 2004, but quite overweight, and she started to lose a lot of the extra girth.
“I lost massive amounts of weight in just a few months,” she recalled. “I was a pretty big girl. I lost 100 pounds.”
At first, Bush chalked up the weight loss and constant belching to stress, but when she shed all the weight, she found a lump in her breast. “I decided to see a doctor over break.”
Bush was diagnosed with DCIS, and beneath that, metastatic breast cancer.
“I lost everything in a week,” Bush said. The diagnosis sent her daughter off the deep end, upset her boyfriend, and meant she had to stop the classes she had waited so long to take.
“As a nurse, you think you know what a cancer diagnosis entails,” she said. “But you don’t. It affects every single thing in your life.” … (more article to come)
© 2007. AMN Healthcare, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Let me know what you think.
Tracy (nursezoneportal@earthlink.net)
what do you think of the latest pay offer?
could you promte this website to people you know and on your blog/
Thanks
Chris
I think that any two part pay offer is rubbish and the latest offering does nothing to resolve that. I don’t mind being offered money for my professional fees but am not sure that it is really worth the administration costs. Plus, will I see it seeing as I am on protected pay – I think not. I will write a post later about this issue and am happy to link to your site.
Just came across your blog by accident (was looking for a tree surgeon!!) and was intrigued. You must be working for the PCT I have just left, and my new role involves PBC, so I suspect we might have a few mutual colleagues?
You never know!
Hi Julie,
My name is Jonathan Zuk, and I am on the staff of NursingLink. I really enjoyed reading your postings, “Thursday Thirteen” and “Lack of Respect”, and I am interested in featuring them on NursingLink. The articles would link back to your blog and you would be listed as a featured author. Please let me know if you are interested. You can reach me via email at jzuk01@gmail.com.
Thanks,
Jonathan
Webmaster / Advertising Department,
I am looking for more information on advertising on your website on behalf of one of our clients.
If you could please send us more information or media kits. We are interested in Text links for this particular client. But would also like information on other forms of advertising you might offer. We are interested in 12 months but would also like pricing on 6 month and 1 month options.
This client is Sport /Entertainment related and NOT gambling related.
If you have other websites please send that information as well.
Looking forward to working with you in the future,
Thanks in advance for your time.
Madeline Manross
Internet Advertising Consultant
madeline360@gmail.com
I’m a mom, a blogger, and a Ph.D. student, and I need your help. I’m doing a study about why women blog, and you have been selected at random to participate in a short survey about what motivates you to blog and what you get out of blogging.
I hope you will take it by clicking this link. Please do not forward the link. (If the link does not show up in your browser when you click on “clicking this link,” you can click here or copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/231228/women-bloggers Please do not distribute the link.
Thanks in advance for your help. Feel free to contact me at gmmasull@syr.edu if you have any questions.
Gina M. Chen
Ph.D. student
S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
Syracuse University
215 University Place
Syracuse, NY 13244-2100
Hi! Are you interested in partnering with NursingLink? (http://nursinglink.monster.com) Let me know! You can contact me here: jill.hare@monster.com
Hello,
My name is Joseph Collins and I represent NursingHomeAbuseCenter.org.
Our website is an informational resource created to help the elderly and their loved ones who are concerned about nursing home abuse. Our site covers everything from signs of nursing home abuse to what steps to take if you suspect abuse. We also provide additional helpful information such as how to go about selecting and paying for a good nursing home.
As a nurse, you know firsthand that the elderly are particularly vulnerable and need our help in protecting them. Therefore, we would appreciate it if you would support us in our mission of protecting the elderly by posting a link to our site on your website.
All we need for our link is “Nursing Home Abuse” linked to http://www.nursinghomeabusecenter.org. The link should look like this: Nursing Home Abuse (but, of course, it should be hyperlinked, made clickable)
Please let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.
Joseph Collins
jcollins@nursinghomeabusecenter.org
Public Relations Coordinator
Nursing Home Abuse Center
Hi Julie,
You have a great blog here and a ton of readers which is awesome to see.
i am a career blogger, and write mostly about Certified Nursing Assistants on how to become and the way forward in the medical career. my site is relatively new and needs a little bit of attention
I was hoping if we could each do a guest post on each others site, i would love to share my thoughts with your readers and you could do the same.
Hoping for a favorable reply
Thanks & Cheers,
Catherine
Hello Julie,
I run Scrubadoo.com, a new e-commerce site that sells pretty much anything a
nurse needs to wear to work.
I am reaching out to bloggers with posts & readers that may be interested in
a store like ours in the hopes to have some of them do reviews of our
website.
We would be happy to provide you with a gift card at the site to use to shop
with us, or we could also work something out where we would provide you a
discount that you can pass on to your readers, or potentially even a code
that we could track and any sales that you sent to us we would send a % back
to you.
If you would like to do a review we would want you to be 100% honest and you
would control everything that was written. We are NOT looking to write a
post and just have you put it up on the blog.
I also want to give you a quick rundown on our company & what we are about
Scrubadoo.com is a small company out of Minneapolis Minnesota, we were
originally founded in Charlottesville Va. We started the company 2 years
ago with the customer service at the core of everything we do. We felt that
the other major websites out there were not offering adequate levels of
service to their customers. Thus far we have had a great response! We
have many testimonials and have even been interviewed on NPR about going
above and beyond service expectations.
We think bloggers like you can really help us spread the word about our
company and are confident you will love shopping with us. We would love to
hear from you and look forward to your review!
-Brett
561.909.9089
brett@scrubadoo.com
Would you be interested in a link trade with my Nurses Blog? Let me know.
Thanks.
Hi Julie, Im quite new to blogging and ive managed to set up my blog at followhealth.co.uk. Your blog is great, id like to try and build something similar, it may take a while though! Ive added a link to you on my blog, would be nice to have one from you as well! Cheers, Andy
Hi Andy, Thanks for your kind words. Happy to link!
Hi Julie,
This not a comment. Just wondering would you be interested in including a featured site within one of your posts for client. I am happy to make payment for this
Regards,
“Not surprisingly I am sometimes unsure of my own sanity!”
I guess, many medical practitioners are like that. Unsure of their own sanity and yet living their lives to the fullest because their job are indeed fulfilling and rewarding.
Does your site have a contact page? I’m having problems locating it but, I’d like to send you an e-mail. I’ve got some creative ideas for your blog you might be interested in hearing. Either way, great site and I look forward to seeing it develop over time.
We are a group of volunteers and opening a brand new scheme in our community. Your site offered us with valuable info to work on. You have performed an impressive process and our whole neighborhood might be grateful to you.
Hello there
Sorry I couldn’t find your contact details so leaving this comment. I just came across your blog whilst researching nursing related sites. I work with a leading team24 who specialise in NHS jobs and I was hoping they could provide a unique guest article for you to publish on your site that would be of interest to your readers.
If you’ve an article topic you’d like Team24 to write about especially for your site, just let me know and I can brief the writer.
Thanks for your consideration and I look forward to hearing from you. I’m happy to answer any questions you might have about Team24.
Kind regards
Mark
mark@3whitehats.com
If you would like an audio interview on NHSreality please email me and we can have a chat. I need local activists who will encourage others to “bear witness”.
roger@burnspace.co.uk
Hi Julie,
I stumbled across your blog and wondered if you’d be interested in chatting to me. I’m conducting some research into the challenges currently facing nurses in the UK today and I’d very much like to chat with you to hear about your own experiences of working within the NHS. I’m already in contact with a handful of other nurses at various stages in their careers, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on how nursing has evolved and changed (for better or worse) over the years.
If this is something that might be of interest to you, I’d love for you to get in touch, and please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions of concerns.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kindest regards,
Tim Morris
PS: I’m a Gooner too if that helps
Hi Tim,
Yes would be happy to speak to you; I will email you in the next day or two
Hi Julie
I recently started a blog on CCR and was wondering if you would be interested in guest posting?
Thanks,
Dsmardza