The joys of management...

No sewing today as I am reeling from a challenging day at work. I manage a small team and today we did team building stuff. On the whole it was a success, and some big steps forward were made. But following the session I took a little time to reflect on what we had done, what was said and how we could "move things forward". I found myself using management buzzwords like "thinking outside the box" and "this isn't a blame culture". I thought afterwards, what did I wish to achieve out of today - all I wanted was for the whole team to get on, to work together and for us all to do what we do best - care for people. We are nurses after all, so that's what we should do. Lots of questions came out of that thought - do we care for our clients (used to call them patients but oh how time changes), do we care for our immediate colleagues, do we care for the company we work for(NHS) or the company that we provide the service for( prison service) or for the people around us who aren't our immediate colleagues. On the whole I'm pleased to say the answer is yes, at least most of the time, although now and again I wonder if we are helping the "clients" by, for example, providing them with easy access to opiate based pain relief for "back pain" - difficult to prove, easy to fake. My nurses work hard to provide equivalent care and the best service available to what can be the most difficult to please group of "clients" I have had the pleasure of caring for in over 30 yrs of nursing service. I have 4 separate solicitors letters on my desk awaiting reply, all complaining because they did not get what they wanted - please note however that is not that they are complaining because they did not get the right treatment, good service, polite, knowledgeable and timely care, but because they did not get what they wanted. Drugs to feed their habit, a letter to get them out of work, evidence that there is a reason they can't produce a urine sample for drug testing cause by some never heard of illness or a side effect of their medication. It's a tricky job mine, but always a challenge.... Oh and by the way, mostly they get free access to solicitors. I expect if they had to pay for solicitor's time I would waste a lot less time replying to just such letters...