Tuesday 22 April 2008

Fraudulent use of the Nurse Practitioner title

Healthcare Republic raises an interesting point.
The problem being, there is currently no protection of the Nurse Practitioner title. This is something NPs have struggled to remedy, there is alas, little support from the DoH.
This leaves those of us who are qualified NPs, and prescribers, with little recourse when faced with this kind of criticism . My personal view is that there is no attempt to defraud patients, but until the title is protected by statute. We will still be seen as quacks by those of our medical colleagues with little insight as to the positive benefits we bring to patient care.

Monday 21 April 2008

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

The venerable Dr Crippen has had another rant against those who have not entered the pantheon that is the GMC register.
This time interestingly, it involves the case of a consultant psychiatrist who, despite the advice of his peers, allowed a violent and murderous patient to be released from hospital. The sad consequences of which were the unfortunate deaths of two young women.
Good old Dr C alludes to further tragedies of this nature potentially being due to CMHTs, so detested by him. He belittles their work and attempts to shift part of the blame for this tragedy onto them. The facts as reported in the news make even more disturbing reading. Dr Birchall is held wholly to blame for this unfortunate episode, his conduct is criticised. There is no mention of any other individual or organisation being held to account in respect of this case. Much less the CMHT who Crippen would love to blame the whole fucking fiasco on.
Whilst I have the deepest respect for the difficult work of a consultant psychiatrist, particularly when there is such a sad end to the tale. I am vexed by the desire to turn it into another 'point' scored by the likes of Dr Crippen in his long game to smear the work of HCPs.

Wednesday 9 April 2008

Fat Bastard

My nom-de-plume was not randomly assigned. It accurately reflects some of my physical characteristics. I've decided that I've been living the good life a bit too much recently. Whilst this is nigh impossible on a nurse's salary, those bits of batter at the chippy are often given away free if you stare longingly at them for long enough.
My expanding waistline is a painful reminder of this. To this end I'm going to make a concerted effort to lose some weight in the next three months. I've posted a meter on the the blog so that I can track my de-lardification.
The bastard of it is. I've just been delivered a case of rather nice Red, still I suppose it will keep until Christmas.

Tuesday 1 April 2008

Take a head shot


Based on my experience of gunshot wounds. I'd hazard a guess that one in the head would defeat the stabbie - no sweat!