So it’s been a while since I last made a post, and life has
changed yet again, this time I write from Melbourne, Australia.
I finally received my nursing papers to enable me to work in
the U.K. It was a lengthy process and ironically I received those papers the
week I returned to Australia. I have opted to pay the hefty U.K registration
fee as who knows where life may take me next!
Meanwhile, I have
managed to secure a wonderful position as practice nurse in the heart of
Melbourne. It’s a busy clinic with more than 10 doctors and 3 other practices
nurses to complete the team.
I was employed initially
with an outlook to becoming the team leader ( a sort of mentor) but it was
difficult to apply that role as the
other nurses had been there for a number of years and were thick as thieves. I
was not really accepted as such in the beginning. The fact that I was to do this mentoring role
in a softly- softly manner made it even more difficult, not allowing the other
nurse to know that this was my role!
How did I cope?..
well, it was hard at first! Luckily I
have a tough hide and can take most things in my stride. There was no orientation
to the job. The nurses expected me to know where everything was and have
knowledge of all the procedures they undertook. One of my colleagues threw a
folder on my desk and said “all the info ‘s in there”.
More often than not I worked alone, not part of a team. If I
was doing procedures, no one would be washing and sterilising instruments
behind me, I would have to do that myself after the morning had finished. If stock came in, I would have to deal with
it by myself, no one came to assist.
I had never worked
with this sort of team before! In my
past positions, nurses always worked together to get things done efficiently,
with mostly friendly and helpful attitudes, true teamwork.
I could go on about the deficiencies of it all, but that
would just be going over old ground. Let’s just say I was resented as the
newcomer coming in trying to change the order of things.
But change DID have
to happen. So many procedures that give a clinic its accreditation had been
sadly neglected. My first job was to make the treatment room respectable, clean
and functional.
There was too much stock of some items and not enough of
others. Daily/weekly/ monthly checks (oxygen,drugs etc) were not being done.
There was haphazard storage and
illogical placing of things. Things that were used every day were placed
on high shelves, and old, old stock that
was no good to anyone was plentiful!
It took me 4 months to get it up to scratch. Now it runs
really well. The doctors know where everything is and everything is in its
place, the counters are clean, and everything is labelled and all equipment is calibrated..
And that is just the start. The past few months have been all about the
physical aspects of the job.. That is just good management. Now that I have a few months under
my belt ... it’s time to introduce leadership.
But that’s another story.
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