Lately, I have been speaking with some nursing friends who have told me their tales of bullying. Bullying in Nursing is a theme in my debut Romantic Comedy as it is something I am quite passionate about. I thought it no longer took place but I was informed that it is as rife today as it was for me, thirty years ago.
My favourite story is when I was working in a certain Intensive Care and was bullied as I had used a downward arrow for blood pressure recording when an upward arrow ( for a particular neurosurgeon) was required. It was Christmas Day, and we were ( as usual) understaffed and unable to take breaks as some of the patients were agitated, trying to get out of bed and unplug a ventilator of the patient beside them. I was crying as the Senior Nurse Manager shouted at me. She said – You are one useless Nurse. Surely you know that Mr.X insists his blood pressure arrows are the opposite of how we normally record them? Can you do anything right?
Two decades later I am at lunch with another Clinical Nurse Manager in a Nursing Home where I was the Assistant Director of Nursing. Bullying in Healthcare was the topic for discussion and I told her my story. She asked me what the Manager looked like. I told her. She mentioned a name. I said, ‘Yes, that, was her, how do you know?’
And she said, ‘ She is my sister, and she is a bitch.’ How we both chuckled.
All the best
Stay fab
Adele
