Summer Nights

I am on a week of nights this week which I don't actually mind. I hate nights in winter when you arrived at work in the dark and leave work in the dark and because you're working in some goddamn awful NHS hospital (and I note proper 'old style' NHS hospitals, not a new fancy PFI one which looks more like a shopping centre) which has very few windows and ghastly flu-tubes meaning that you never get to see any daylight. No, working in the summer is quite pleasant as the hospital has cooled down somewhat (why do NHS managers seem to think that simply because 'it is a hospital' do we need the heating on when it's 23C outside) and you see some daylight.

Most of the work is the same... alcohol related, poisonings, collapse from unknown cause, etc etc etc. However, you do get to see some different types of patients, such as those with heat stroke or surprisingly there tends to be an increase in the number of poisonings by illicit drugs, so I was relieved to find this article from the 'New Scientist' which clarifies my thinking. Obviously, you see more alcoholism related injuries/illnesses which occur from people sitting outside in the sun for lunch, having a few drinks and then deciding that they can drive home/return to their manual job/construct a garden shed. Also, more dehydration and self-neglect as elderly people (in my observations) don't go out when it is hot, and therefore do not stock up on food etc and it is startling how many say "well my daughter-in-law was meant to go to the supermarket yesterday for me but she rang and said she didn't because it was a nice day so she was going out for a drink with her friends from work". Members of the public, sunny weather does not mean you can neglect your duties, whether this is collecting food from the supermarket for mother-in-law, leaving your kids in the car for "just 5 minutes" whilst you chat to a friend (with no window open and in direct sunlight), doing the same with your dog or neglecting to apply suntan lotion to your child who is about to spend all day outside on a school trip and will come back with very nasty burns (although I sense the teacher should have had some input there, but now I remember that teachers are not allowed to touch children anymore so the child suffers severe burns, dehydration, heat stroke and ends up in A&E... bureaucracy gone mad!).

On another note, I will soon be unemployed in August and have just been informed by my darling fiance that he is moving South with his job (surgical registrar). Currently we both work in the North, me in a city and him in the country, but we are to move. He is an army medic and therefore has to work where there are MDHUs and so we have been told where we are going. I have just had a quick look on the NHS Jobs website and there are a couple of job opportunities that look promising, both Registrar posts in Emergency Medicine. They are both under the scheme where you train 'on the job' for 5 years after being qualified for 3 years and having been considered to have had enough training in a junior role to undertake a more senior role and senior training. I guess I'll have to start applying!