Bipolar in Transition

Today I was threatened with physical assault by a patient. It's not the first time, and it probably won't be the last. It's not a regular occurrence, and Lord knows I don't experience it on the level that my colleagues in Emergency Departments do. But it's shaken me. I'm a relatively large fella, on the upper edge of 6' tall and quite broad through the shoulders. However, I'm no fighter. I've used the phrase "couldn't fight my way out of a wet paper bag" more than once. After this incident I've had the shakes and my train of thought is ruined. Which to some extent compromises the care of the patients under my responsibility. Thankfully, I have a solid team around me at work for support. According to result statistics, Australian nurses are more likely to be at risk of attack in their workplace than police officers. And I have no doubt this is the same worldwide. The recent shooting in Chicago that took the lives of a polic...

For a couple of months now, myself and a friend have been podcasting. It's what all the cool kids are doing now apparently. Except, we're not kids. And I'm not sure if we're cool. Me after listening to the latest Hottest 100. Clint and I have a shared passion for music. We love listening to it, discussing it, pulling it all to pieces. The podcast came about quite spontaneously: Clint had begun a Facebook challenge of "10 albums that impacted your life", gotten stuck with the limited format of the challenge and started his blog "Fell In Love With a Girl". I did a a similar thing, except I ignored the whole "no words, just the cover" and wrote great swathes of text exploring the albums and also the personal attachment I had to the music. People seemed to enjoy them, Clint asked to reblog them and the idea that perhaps we should do this on a semi-regular basis evolved, mostly from us just tagging each other on band pages and saying ...

I'm sure you've heard it before: nursing is a tough gig. You haven't? What rock have you been living under, and does it have good NBN speeds? I work on a general medical ward, and can have up to five patients at any one time of various levels of acuity. From dementia to sepsis to mental health overflow, it all comes in. The pressure ramps up and having to juggle patients needs and treatments it can all get a bit overwhelming at times. Especially for a "baby" nurse such as myself. Throw in a sometimes unpredictable mood cycle and once in a while I have to make a trip to my special place to let it out. Orientating the new Grad nurse to the ward One of the things I've attempted to incorporate in to my shifts is a moment or two of mindfulness - times to take a step back and reflect on my day to that point and to reset for the time to come. These can be hard to snatch on a busy ward, but I think I've cracked the code: bed making.  Hear me out. It...

*apologies for the profanity* I've just shut down my Facebook account. Because it's damaging my calm. And that's not good. So if you're here from there, the gist is this: I've belatedly realised it's a toxic pile of crap. Talk about being on the ball. Currently this   Yeah it's great for memes, and Betoota Advocate articles, and endless Richmond angst for the amusement of all, and most importantly, arguing over trivial shit at 1am when I should be asleep and looking after myself... No wait, that last bit isn't so great. It's alarmingly addictive, and I can easily lose hours just scrolling aimlessly and feel myself drifting down and down in to a pit of... nothing. I don't really need to know what's going on with everyone's life. That's what actual human contact is for - still need to work on that bit. God knows my life is enough at this point in time.  The personal data thing? Well, we're all in neck deep at th...