I work in ED and I decided a few months ago I would commit more time to patient education on their health. I try my best to use the "Making every contact count initiative"

However after giving basic health advice which Intry to talior around them after asking them a few questions about their lifestyle, 99% either don't care, don't believe me or are in complete denial.

Surely the morbidly obese man who came in for crushing chest pain doesnt see him self as an healtly person because "I walk a mile and back to the pub every day", or the patient struggling to breathe doesnt think his COPD flair up is unrelated to his heavy smoking.

I try to be un judgemental and kind but also very clear that they need to make major changes to the lifestyle but I have often been told "I dont know what I'm on about".

It also get's to me a bit that my tax is happily funding these bad choices

The Scottish Government has announced our 14 health boards will be reduced to only 2. Do you support this? What will the potential benefits be?

It happens that people on a specific rota end up owing hours, sometimes they recover them on the following one or accrue them. Now everytime a shift is not covered for whatever reason we are supposed to ask those who owe hours before requesting extra cover... we save money and hours get recovered so it looks like a win win, the problem is when this is forced.

A specific day next week we are expected to be short of staff, those who owe hours would end up doing 3 long days in a row or already have plans. Matrons now are making up rules like "if you owe hours you shouldn't book shifts elsewhere" or "if you owe hours you must recover them ASAP". The problem is they are throwing us band 6 under the bus and making us harass people to make them work those specific days, which has resulted in a couple of colleagues getting mad at me.

Now I appreciate we need to save money and hours must be recovered but once the rota has been published we are very much entitled to make plans and say no to last minute changes. Also if you ask me, 3 long days in a row is brutal, if someone wants to do 7 long days back to back then I can't argue with that, but I can't force them to do so, can I?

From my understanding guidelines are a bit wishy washy and everybody plays by their own rules, I don't want this doing so many long days in a row to be normalised (personally speaking I cannot do more than 2). So what are the rules? Is this fair?

Hi all,

I had major surgery 3 weeks ago. I’ve been told I need 12 weeks off and then a phased return. I am a NQN in ED.

I don’t know if I can go back to ED. It is so physically demanding and it’s takes months to recover from this surgery and I don’t know if I can handle it.

I’ve only been there since June and qualified in May.

What do I do ? Find another nursing job ? Or just carry on in ED ?

Has anyone ever made the transition into research nursing? I have a lot of experience behind me, but no research experience. Any research nurse jobs I see advertised always ask for research experience, does anyone have any ideas how I can get that experience, on top of my current full time permanent position? I have looked for bank opportunities but can't seem to find any.

Thank you in advance

Thinking about studying for the NA as I've been asked if I want to apply. I would say I'm a decent HCA with more knowledge than average. However it will probably take about five years in total, 2 years to get to band 4 ( which is basically the same pay as the top band 3 ) then I'd have to work a year as a band 4 before then doing a year and a half top up. The scope of the role also seems a bit poorly defined.

I've been told that the full degree is a lot more robust and I will have time to study it better, as the NA you'd still work full-time. Some people have advised for and against. Just wanted to know if anyone had any experience or opinions. Should I go for the NA or do 3 years at university

Thank you.