The office: Chatter about your job

Not for this lass: I've always had hand-eye coordination issues. <winces> My hands don't trust my eyes and my eyes and brain get into arguments. And, thus... I drop plates.

edited 19th Oct '12 1:39:32 AM by Euodiachloris

My dad's a qualified chainsaw instructor, among other things. The number of ways you can ruin your life with a chainsaw ... Knowing all that also means he's one of the few people I've ever seen actually bother with the protective gear, it seems that most of the people who use them in their jobs don't. I'm guessing sometimes, the risk of mistakes through heat exhaustion from wearing all the gear exceeds that of chainsaw accidents ...

Being one of relatively few male nurses I keep changed with guarding the violence and psychotic patients, it's starting to piss me off frankly.

I feel your pain, man. I have a number of demented patients myself. Not easy at all.

@Morven: I generally wear some of the safety gear. I've never, for example, put on a set of those safety pants. But I wear eye and ear protection. I'm not completely stupid.

To be honest, teaching the students to use the full gear means that when they rebel against that, they still wear the most critical parts. There's also some argument to be made that too much safety equipment just makes people more careless to compensate — e.g. people who drive cars with antilock brakes tend to stop later, because they have more confidence.

Night shift again. *sigh*

Oh, the joys of Medicine... <hugs>

edited 23rd Oct '12 2:44:03 AM by Euodiachloris

^^ How long will you be in this position? Are you hoping to train in a speciality with less on-call work?

I don't mind working night shift myself, it's just trying to catching up on sleep the next day that's bad.

Eh, I think the on-call work is going to be a major part of life for the next decade or so. It's not as bad as it used to be, since we've migrated towards a shift system - saves us some of the potential pitfalls associated with sleep deprivation. For me, though, it's mainly an issue of waiting for the morning to come so that the primary team can review the patients and advise accordingly. Self-confidence issues can do that to you.

And as joey said, it's the mornings after that get to you sometimes. I got home at 9 in the morning, had lunch, subsequently fell asleep from 12 to about 7, and am just about ready to head back to work right now at about 9. The hours are equivalent to a regular day's work (10pm - 8am), but it's hell on your circadian rhythm (and social life, if the latter applies). Fortunately, we're not allowed to do more than a half-week's worth of night shifts per month.

edited 23rd Oct '12 5:59:37 AM by Pyrite

My mum's got some horror stories about being a junior doctor on call in the '60s, before such things as shift restrictions ever even hove onto the employment conditions radar... <shudders>

Worse, being female in the still very misogynistic, macho framework all this was a part of.

edited 23rd Oct '12 6:43:30 AM by Euodiachloris

I can imagine. Just because it was how things were done in the old days doesn't make it safe or right.

@Pyrite: It's good that there's a limit at least. I'm a medical student, so this awaits me in the future.

...Oh, shit. It's too late for you. My condolences.

(Just kidding - welcome to the club. But be sure it's what you want to do.)

^I'm technically studying a Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery/Bachelor of Arts, so I still have something to dodge to if I change my mind.

Though honestly, I'm probably going to drop the Arts degree. It's just too much to do at once, and I love studying med enough that I don't want to divert from it. It's a long road, though, so who knows?

Long and winding. My mum entered it with the aim of becoming a paediatric GP... and ended up a psychiatrist as alternative interests hooked her and didn't let go during the training.

Still... people over the years have been glad she did her MBBS: neat stitches and epic first-aid skills have saved lives while she was on the road between surgeries. Newcastle University: not for nothing is the medical school known to churn out technically rounded generalists.

edited 24th Oct '12 5:25:31 AM by Euodiachloris

why the idea anyone thought that having doctors work 30 hours shifts was ever a good idea in the first place I would never know.

edited 24th Oct '12 9:02:51 AM by joeyjojo

Yuan: A double degree? That's quite the rarity for medical school in these parts, but they probably do things differently in Australia. All the best.

Eu: Always pays to remember the basics - saves you the embarrassment of not being able to perform basic first aid.

joey: Probably the same people who thought hand-washing was stupid and a waste of time.

It was mainly cultural, as far as anybody can work out. Mum is definitely of that opinion, and I met a few of her colleagues over the years with the same idea. As junior doctors were ragged on and pushed going back for centuries, it became the thing to do when you, in turn, became a senior doctor or consultant, simply because you went through sheer hell and, maybe, wanted to justify what you'd gone through back in the day. <shrugs>

Typical institutional bullying, in short, even though everybody within the profession knew the horrible mistakes this mindset creates. Instead of being a cause to pause, it just became part of the black humour and ritualised bonding (and excluding) that allows you to survive a hard profession.

Not a pretty picture, really. -.-

edited 24th Oct '12 5:53:22 AM by Euodiachloris

Yeah, I've always had the impression that it only carried on because it's how our predecessors did it, and theirs before them, and etc. etc. etc. Tradition is hard to break from.

Oh well... It's a good shift when they admit to all other disciplines but yours. I actually got some sleep!

That thing about converting hobbies to jobs and losing the fun somewhere along the way?

It's not really applying right now because I just spent a couple of hours editing a story about gunfighters and saloons and once it falls through I will get paid to do more of that.

It's a hard-knock life, alright, when you get to read fiction as part of the job.

LOOK LOOK LOOK MY FUN NOVEL IS LIVE. If it weren't for the repeated chapter heading this would be perfect.

YAY!