"I consider this the definitive comment on the current state of nursing. Well done Philip" - Prof. Roger Watson

The All Blacks supercaptain tells what he has learned about Leadership.  Nurse leaders, listen up.

Today we lost one of the most visionary and creative business leaders of the century, Apple's Steve Jobs.

I couldn't help but wonder what he would make of his new home ‘upstairs’.

 

If you think that homeopathy is just harmless Woo Woo watch this 'Australian Story' and read this Coroner's Report.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This has been a bad new week for the Australian Woo Woo industry.  Good

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do nurses really need to be told how to look professional at work or is this just a good excuse for the media to resurrect some 'Carry On Nurse' jokes?

 

Is a job in the health service or university sector a 'job for life'?

The internet era has added a crucial 4th stage where either your birth video or placenta photos appear on your blog, on YouTube or on someone’s Facebook page, thus properly validating the event. This may make a change from rustling up a quick placenta spag bol or fashioning just the cutest placenta teddy bear. After all, if it isn’t online, it doesn’t exist. When a Maryland hospital banned cameras and film crews at births until 5 minutes following the baby’s birth, you would have thought that th...

There are times when gaping-mouthed, incredulous anger is the only response I can muster. ABC’s latest 4 Corners Report called ‘Dangerous Territory’ is responsible. We are probably all becoming inured to tales of the horrors and violence meted out to children by the parents and families expected to care for and about them. In fact, I’m sure there are times when the latest report of a child’s death or mistreatment barely registers more than a fleeting sadness and a quick wondering abou...

As the citizens of Bundaberg in Queensland followed the trial and subsequent conviction of “Dr Death”, Jayant Patel they perhaps didn’t worry too much about events thousands of miles away in the UK, or even in Texas. This may be just as well as there is no telling whether they would find these developments oddly comforting or even more alarming. What they would find is further evidence of the phenomena that blighted not only Bundaberg Hospital, but other hospitals and health organisat...

Does it really matter what nurses look like? I remember all of the old battles fought about nurses’ uniforms and how radically progressive we all thought we were being in deriding them as some kind of arcane symbols of oppression. What could be more egalitarian and practical we thought than for all hospital nurses to wander about in identically colored trouser suits or scrubs. The hospital equivalent of a shell suit. What struck me so clearly on my recent visits to both Yeovil and B...

The Francis Inquiry Report - Don’t join ‘the constant refrain’ If you are not reading or planning to read the newly released “Francis Report” into the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_113018 you probably shouldn’t be working in health care. It is THAT important. It is a harrowing read but that is not surprising given the systematic failures in management and care, and their often le...

If you think that nurse whistleblowers have a hard time here in Australia or UK, spare a thought for nurse Anne Mitchell in Texas.  Only this week a court found her and fellow nurse Vicki Galle not guilty of felony charges that could have seen her jailed for 10 years and fined $10,000.Anne had written to the State Medical Board with concerns about a doctor at her hospital, having tried the ‘normal channels’.  In her letter she cited the specific patient profile numbers (but not names).  Ev...

All team members are equal, but some are more equal than others The highlight of a Fringe Festival for me is any production by the mesmerising Guy Masterton.  Last year I sat through two electrifying performances (once, just wasn't nearly enough) of his one-man production of Dylan Thomas’s ‘Under Milk Wood' with tears streaming down my face as I watched him bring a two hour play with over 60 characters to life using no more than a pair of pyjamas, a chair and a pair of sunglasses.  If eve...

Thanks a lot for kind thoughts and comments Eimear. Great question about retaining 'younger nurses'.  I think that there is so much snake oil being peddled out there in the how-to-attract-'Gen Y' industry that we run the risk of forgetting some basics and imaging that 'younger nurses' come from another solar system.  We don't need to completely redesign nursing and health care, just remember the song, "the fundamental things apply, as time goes by". Let's remember why people generally want to b...