15 Mar A return to fitness
Thank you to you all who have welcomed me back to school and shown concern for my health over the last couple of months.
Having something go wrong with your body, unexpectedly, is something that can happen in life and one cannot underestimate the amount of anxiety and worry that it can cause, not only personally, but for loved ones, family and friends. For me, this was also coupled with the challenge of having to put my job, and the school community to the side.
During times like this, we have to put trust in those around us to be able to care and look after things in our absence. I was extremely lucky that I had every confidence in the Senior Leadership and the staff team to be able to continue without me, which they did with such good grace, integrity and expertise. This is something for which I will always be grateful for and cannot thank them enough.
Upon arrival at hospital I was shown to my room – number 13! I’m not superstitious, but there was a tiny part of me that panicked. To make matters worse, my surgeons came to introduce themselves – we ended up talking about football. It turned out that one of the surgeons was an avid Liverpool fan; he made a light hearted joke about him operating on an Evertonian, a joke that perhaps would have been funny at any other time. His parting shot was a comment about the fact that they hadn’t had a patient on the ward with any post-operative complications for two days. He joked that the odds were certainly in my favour. I was not amused. However, on the wall just outside my room, there was a board that displayed feedback the ward had received, and how well they had addressed various medical issues. He was quite correct; there hadn’t been any complications for two days.
During my recovery, the nurses were very supportive and encouraging, they listened and smiled, were positive and quick to help. Nursing, like teaching is not a well-paid profession and they do not do it for the money. We do it because we want to make a difference and ensure that those we come into contact with are able to live happy and healthy lives. It is very easy to draw a parallel between nursing and teaching. The attention to detail and enthusiasm staff have for creating a safe, caring and exciting school environment for our children is wonderful to see day in and day out. However there are times that we may miss something, and like the evaluation board on my ward, it is important that we as a school don’t shy away from issues and problems, but instead constantly evaluate and learn from our practice to make sure that we provide the best possible experience for our children.
I’m very excited to be back and look forward to the rewards and challenges we will face in the future.