There is something fundamentally wrong with out National Health Service and I cannot help but want to rant a little.
I am a Student Radiographer. I changed my career from being a Veterinary Nurse after a break to have children, as I wanted to help people- I shall just clarify that- HELP PEOPLE!
My experience has been that the humanity is knocked out of you as a worker within the NHS.The orgabnistaion is too big for any one man to take on. We were belittled by one lecturer for even pretending to want to help people- he said we should be honest and say we went into Radiography for a good career and wage. Ha! Yes, you start on about £20 thou a year, but after 3 years hard slog is it really a huge wage? I don't think so. Doing we what we do, at least initially, is not about money. If it were we would be in another field all together.
Then come the ethics and law lectures where they scare us half to death about being sued. We can't touch a patient. We dare not bruise them if we give an IV injection ( a radiographer did this and the patient recieved £2000 out of court settlement.) We can't show we are upset ever, even when we see some of the grimest sides to life. We are encouraged to become hardened to pain and suffering. If a patient needs to urinate and we are in a rush we let them lose their dignity by not providing them with the care that they need, so that they wet their bed.
Of course, not all Health workers are like this at all. We all face overwork and staff shortages whilst managers abund who don't actually do any patient care at all. Money is not available for more staff, yet agency workers are paid well over the going rate to fill staff shortages and deplete the coffers further. There are those who tirelesly work overtime (and dont claim for it) for a patient's benefit. Protected CPD time is taken at home as there is no time at work.
You cannot fight this system as a Rdaiographer. I doubt you can as a Doctor.They suffer the same demoralisation on many counts .
I have a place at a Medical School next year. I am on a mission. I think we need to change our model of health care, preety much as suggested by Patch Adams. Yes, it was a film, but there is a man behind the film with a message to impart.
Why are we scared of becoming involved with our patients? Why is suing a person who is fundamentally trying to help so prevalent in our society? Part of the problem is that Doctors are seen as Gods who can fix all ills. Alas, all medicine ever really does is stall for more time. Death is inevetable for us all at some point. No Doctor can hold that off. Death itself has become institutionalised , We don't face it anymore.
Modern medical advances have probably caused as many ethical dilemas as problems they have helped. For example ,the introduction of the ventilator in 1929 (the Iron Lung) meant that patients could be kept breathing and their heart kept beating when their brain was in fact dead.Is this really an advance? When do we switch it off? What effect does that decision have on relatives of a loved one?
The other problem within the medical field is indeed greed. The greed of Doctors, pharmacological companies and allied health providers is rife. There is still an attitude of secrecy around choices that recent legislation has not really addressed. The patient thinks they have choice, when in fact there is none really. Many decisions are made already from them, as can be seen by the postcode lottery for some expensive drugs.
In all of this the patient and health worker become more and more distrustful of one another. And more miserable. There is little cheer in our hospitals.
Yet humour alone can help so much. A smile to a patient can lift the spirits. Each individual should be the centre of our attention for that short window of space we are with them. We should smile at them. Make small talk. Open up a little. Stop demanding repsect before it is earned. Reassure. Comfort. Many workers do this already. Many would do more if only they have the time.
I judge the quality of my work for a day not upon my throughput of patients, or difficult radiographs attained, but on how many patients I can make smile.
We should do this more.
Become a Patchite and spread a little trust and happiness. 
