This all seems sooooo heavy. Thats all I seem to see / read, how nurses are short on the ground, students have no jobs to go to, difficulty in registering, lack of rcognition etc etc, and this has been going on for years! Are you at all happy in your roles?? Ive had my say in that I am appaulled re the NMC and registration problems for OH nurses, but hey guys, take a good look at what you are doing, how you are making a difference to peoples lives, job satisfaction. If you dont like what you see, perhaps re condsider another vocation with less polotical red tape etc!!
A challenge to you all....it would be nice to read about positive experiences within OH and general nursing, (perhaps some of us could gain some real valuable tips??) and perhaps some valuable advise regards to improving skills, assertiveness etc.
I dont know about the rest of you, I still have the nursing times (as well as the oh journal) and all I seem to see on the front cover (oh journal not included) is negative press re the nursing profession, whether its to do with pay, lack of jobs, bullying, working conditions, discrimination..... and by constantly having these issues in your face (which also affects the OH profesison to a degree) can be depressing and dis heartening. It is important to be aware of these thing, but what we have to remember is that many of these issues continue because we let them....we can speak up and we can make a difference (granted, not always), but lets stop the talking so much and introduce some action stating that we are not going to be walked over anymore and that we are a valued profession!!
Tracie Mckelvie
Occupational Health Nurse / Adviser
Pembrokeshire College
Merlins Bridge
Haverfordwest
Pembs.
SA61 1SZ
TEL: 01437 753194
FAX: 01437 767279
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>>> [log in to unmask] 09/30/06 11:09 AM >>>
on 30/9/06 10:07 am, Frank Oakes at [log in to unmask] wrote:
Greta,
I can not argue with you but what I think academia and the NMC needs to
appreciate is that the bulk of people working in Occupational Health today
are shall we say, in our more mature years. They have families, financial
commitments, heavy workloads and more often than not employers whose only
concern is to get product out of the factory gate and sponsoring 'the nurse'
to go onto further education that in their opinion ( and more often than not
ours) does not give them the skills such as audiometric and spirometry
training to do the job. Like a lot of you I have worked in industry for a
few years now and I can picture the faces of the managers when we ask them
can we go on a course with 'nurses' and learn about the theory of health
when I have just spent 15 years convincing them that we are more than just
nurses and oh yes, can I have an extra £3,000 to do my spiro and audio
course also.
We can do better and under the circumstances we do. All I ask on behalf of
us out here is that academia, the NMC et al. stop beating us up, stop moving
the goal posts and appreciate the frustrations expressed here. That's the
beauty of a forum like this we can express ourselves at all levels and we
will never agree with everything said here, but that's democracy for you,
you got to love it.
I hope no one takes offence by any of this. Just my Saturday morning two
pennies worth.
Regards
Frank
Hello Frank
For many years I was allowed to run a course on which only OHNs educated .
The course to which we recruited our last intake last year consisted of 8
units each of which was focused on OH. We covered health assessment
including spirometry, audiometry and attendance management to name but a few
topics. We also gave our graduates the knowledge and skills to take a
leadership role within the occupational health team.
Despite that course being oversubscribed it was a university senior
management decision that we could no longer offer such a programme and from
this month I am now only allowed to recruit to a programme which educates
OHNs side by side with other public health nurses including SN's & HV's .
Had we not developed a pathway through that degree management decided that
the university would discontinue educating OHNs when the validation of the
BSc Occupational Health Nursing programme expires - ie 2007. That saddened
me as our programme has evolved from the first occupational health nursing
course developed at the RCN in the 1930's.
As I said in a previous email OHN educators do not make the rules, we may
not agree with all of them - we just have to work within them. Furthermore
we also have to face the criticism of practitioners when they feel that
courses do not meet their needs. If practitioners do not agree with the
standards developed by the NMC lobby the NMC for the changes you feel
appropriate. Include the evidence for your proposed changes.
Anne
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please remove this footer before replying.
For list archives and documents, go to
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/occ-health.html
FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES AND EVENTS:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/filearea.cgi?LMGT1=OCC-HEALTH
For Occupational Health jobs, go to http://OHJobs.drmaze.net
Find out about Occupational Health Nursing Education in UK at
http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in6232/aohne/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please remove this footer before replying.
For list archives and documents, go to
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/occ-health.html
FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES AND EVENTS:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/filearea.cgi?LMGT1=OCC-HEALTH
For Occupational Health jobs, go to http://OHJobs.drmaze.net
Find out about Occupational Health Nursing Education in UK at
http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~in6232/aohne/
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