That's the way it goes

THIS week, my time working at the nursing agency came to an end. A little ahead of schedule one might say but living life as a casual employee, you have to take the rough with the smooth.

The hourly rate of a casual is generally better than that of permanent employees but there also come a whole heap of disadvantages too. I've worked shifts as a casual allocations consultant since late November and have picked up some chunky wage packets but the downside to not being a fully fledged permanent member of staff means no holiday pay and no sick leave. Not that I've had any bout of illness bad enough to keep me from my keyboard but not having a five week paid holiday break perk is badly missed.

Husband has been wanting to get off on holiday upto Queensland for a few months but the thought of losing a whole week's pay didn't bode well with me. With restricted dollarage, I'd be more frugal than ever and that's not what I like to be. I'm a spender not a saver and to have a week with no cash didn't sound like much fun.

So with the onslaught of company cutbacks, some staff have faced the axe - me being one of them. With hindsight I think I did well to serve my time there, considering I know absolutely nothing about the world of nursing. I've learnt a lot about the different types of nurse and what they can and can't do and even had an insight behind the scenes of a public hospital. I was once given a booking for two Div2 nurses but one had to be a male, for a 'special' at the local hossie. When I'd found suitable staff, I called their names back to one of the allocations team who said "Now, which one is for the shackled patient...?"

At this point, my attention had been grasped and I was keen to learn more about this side of hospital life that I've never seen before. The most I've seen is a couple of maternity wards and a brief spell in A&E with one of my boys when he cut open his lip. That's my hospital history. So to hear that patients are shackled to their beds means one thing and one thing only. That they need a one-to-one nurse who can put out physical restraint if need be.

Some 'specials' are little old ladies who have a tendency to abscond and leg it from the ward to the nearest Bottle-O and others are little more demanding, with the threat of causing danger to other patients and staff.

It's a sad part of today's society that staff can feel threatened in their place of work. Doctors, nurses and a whole heap of other working professionals are to be admired for the roles they play in helping keep us all on the right track.

And on the right track I now aim to get... job number 5 - here I come.