Blog Articles
The Covid Diaries 8
Saturday 23rd May 2020 I’ve lost count of the number of days and weeks Covid-19 has been forefront in my mind. There...
Re-living harrowing moments
The guttural howl could be heard at the other end of the corridor. It went on and on, uncontrollable, penetrating the...
The Covid Diaries 6
Saturday 9th May 2020 Our 1930s house has had no work done on it in the 25 years we have lived there, and not much...
Re-leveling: how stories ground us.
Doctors make mistakes. There; I've said it. For those of us in the profession, that can be a hard pill to swallow, but the earlier that lesson is learnt the better, not only for our patients but also for ourselves. Doctors make mistakes - the important question is,...
Re-posing the diversity question
Oh, how they quivered! They shuffled in their seat, they looked at each other, their heart missed a beat. Not sure it was a triumph. It was clear they were caught unawares of something. Some unsavoury thought? They had to ask me the diversity question: ‘how would you...
Recalling my time in neurosurgery
As a junior doctor I spent six months working on a neurosurgical ward of a London hospital. This job was unlike any I had worked before. The hours were long and the work intensive. Our rota of four doctors was only filled by three of us, meaning at times a 1:2 on-call...
Re-writing conversations
The phone started to ring; a withheld number. In an instant my palms became sweaty and my heart rate seemed to double. My husband and I were on the way to visit our 8 week old daughter in hospital. Having been 'promoted' from the intensive care nursery to the step...
Re-consenting
I remember the morning vividly even though it was over 15 years ago. I was sat in a side room on the gynae ward, nil by mouth since midnight and having already changed into the impersonal, ill fitting hospital gown that I had been given. The team arrived; consultant,...
Re-defining: culture and purpose
It was my first ward sisters post. It was on ‘that ward’. You know, the one that everyone talks about? The staff are always rude, (apparently) the patients have a terrible experience and it always has well, an ‘aroma’ about it. Colleagues looked at me with total...
Reaching out
“I'm not ready to go yet.” The words were barely understandable through the sobs, but the feeling and power with which they were spoken was immense. My patient was in her 30's and had been admitted through the Emergency Department to the surgical ward I was working on...
Recovering myslef
"I'm so sorry for keeping you waiting." I heard the words spoken from within me as my next patient walked through the door from the waiting room to the minor injury area of the Emergency Department. It was after midnight. My shift had officially finished over three...
Respecting everyone in surgery
“ I have found that the smartest, most competent, empathetic women in medicine are the most likely to rate their performance as ‘awful’, ‘terrible’, or a failure. This characteristic gets worse the higher the level of coaching that I am providing. This is ridiculous;...