Dr Doctor it's like being in prison..

I heard one of the consultants discussing how being in hospital is actually rather like being in prison. We trap patients in a room with other sick people and wont let them leave, take away their clothes and give them bright orange jammies to wear, feed them at set times, dont allow them visitors unless it's visiting hours, take away their cigarettes (and drugs),. and in addition we periodically stab them with needles, poke tubes into various orifices and leave them at the mercy of the physiotherapists (affectionately known as the physioterrorists by some).

Indeed, the analogy seemed very fitting when I heard one of the nurses call out to another nurse (upon seeing three of the female patients in her bay sat out in chairs and not in bed) "Can you 'elp me get my free ladies back in bed?" In retrospect, perhaps this was merely her pronunciation and nothing to do with the analogy.

A few minutes later, a whooping arose from the corridor, and two nurses came flying by, riding the patient hoist! There then followed a crash and we peaked out to see both nurses on the floor next to the hoist, which had crashed into the wall at the end..

In other news, I have been honing my blood taking skills. Today one of the nurses asked me to take blood from a former IV drugs user. I'll admit it, my first thought was not about whether I would find a vein, but whether this chap might have Hep B, Hep C or HIV, and my next thought was whether he would think me rude if I wore two pairs of gloves to stick needles in him. I rationalised that actually, yes he is a high risk patient, but I have never had a needlestick injury and am not highly likely to stick myself this time either so didnt double glove. He seemed like a reasonable guy, very open about his past, and really glad to have left it all behind him (although says he still occasionally gets really painful abscesses at previous injection sites which is an unwelcome reminder). Of course, I couldnt find a vein anywhere so resorted to an arterial stab at the radial artery in the wrist. Halfway through the procedure he was very keen to tell me how he'd been tested for the above blood borne viruses and was clean.

One of the things I love about this job is the opportunity to meet interesting people I would never otherwise have contact with. It's a privilege to gain an insight into lives that have been so different from my own.