Thursday 3 May 2012

I'm Back!

It has been far too long since my last post.  Constant reader I'm truly sorry.  We had a consolidation week where I worked at the GP surgery.  Then we had two weeks of Easter break where I worked at the surgery.  Next came three weeks of SSU, where I worked at the surgery.  Spot a trend?  I've done a lot of work at the surgery and not much else.  We're back onto the normal timetable now and our case unit back is MS, which seems to be full of Neurology and cranial nerves, which I hate.

My SSU was called 'Wot you chattin about'.  I thought it would be about neuro-linguistic programming, but it turned out to be about active listening, being present/in the moment, quietening your internal narrative and finding your place in the world.  I had to write a diary everyday for three weeks about my observations and feelings, write a monologue that was my truth about an important moment, or something I want to say to someone but can't, learn and perform a monologue from Shakespeare and write a final report which I did as a self exploration of active listening and presence and their place in a healthcare setting.  It was a bit fluffy, that I can't deny, but actually I really enjoyed it.  I haven't done any amateur dramatic stuff for years, and the sessions were all about trust exercises and team building.  It was good fun, as long as you were happy to look silly for a few hours.  The facilitator encouraged us to try active listening on three people a week, and do some things differently to the way you normally do them - walk on the other side of the road, cross your arms the other way or take your jumper off a different way.  The active listening was pretty good, as I did it at work a lot and some of the conversations I had with the patients I could tell that it really meant a lot to them to have a stranger really listen, and they went away visibly happier.  It was great that such a simple thing could make such a big difference.  It felt like we'd make a deeper connection, and was lovely.  I should stop wittering about my SSU in case you all think I've turned hippy on you.  Anyway, the short story is I haven't posted because after writing a diary every day for three weeks I was all reflected out and I really liked the SSU and think I may have done well in it.

My results came out and I passed all of the competencies.  That was a relief because I was certain I'd failed one of the competencies.  All of them were satisfactory with one excellent for 2 person basic life support.  So now all that's left is one more AMK and my ISCE's which are like OSCE's - lots of competencies all on one day.  *Shiver*

Mr came home!!  He's been away overseas for four months and he finally came home.  We had a lovely couple of weeks doing not a lot and it was awesome.  We did go and see Cabin in the Woods which is an awesome film, I was bouncing up and down for a good few hours after loon grinning and repeating 'Ahhh, that was amazing!', but I am a bit of a Joss Whedon-o-phile.  We went to the christening of my cousins beautiful twins, the funeral of my two up boss at the pensions company - a wonderful, inspirational, kind hearted, legend of a man, cruelly taken much too soon.   We also found and booked our holiday for this year.  I've handed in my resignation for the surgery and confirmed my dates to go back to the pension company in the Summer.

All in all I'm a pretty happy bean, and that concludes the whistle stop tour of my last six weeks.  It sure is good to be back with you all.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Have you gone again?