I saw on BBC news today that the Royal College of Nursing are trying to revamp public image with a nifty video of Nurses citing cannulas, chatting, entertaining kids, cleaning up vomit and other daily nursing events. The video made me nostalgic for hospital work.
I’m beginning to miss midwifery. I’m glad i spent today running through and tramming the streets of Istanbul to get my application to register as a midwife in Australia certified and posted (well, I’ll post it tomorrow, didn’t quite get to that today). In a month more this cycle tour will be over and I’ll be back to being a Midwife. I feel ready for it.
But I’m off topic. The ‘This Is Nursing’ video seems to be from a positive place, i.e. concentrating on the good efforts of nurses instead of all the negative errors of care that get into the news.
Midwives are having a sexy representation in the media at the moment, with TV shows like ‘Call The Midwife’ and the docusoap ‘One Born Every Minute’. I think this is probably a good thing; the attention to the stress the UK maternity system is very positive.
Nurses haven’t been included much in this media attention, so it’s good for them to get coverage. Maybe it will pull some new recruits in. I wonder whether this video will help public image or whether the budget cuts in the NHS are having too much of an impact on patients’ experience for a video to change anything.
Either way I know I couldn’t be a Nurse, as I much prefer overall working with well people having babies. My sister who had just finished a PhD in neuroscience is considering General Nursing as the next point in her career. If they can attract candidates with PhDs after a day, maybe thier campaign will work even better than the midwifery propaganda in the media right now, well done Royal College of Nursing.