A deep breath

I have had a quiet 10 days or so with my eldest daughter having a tonsillectomy. There is nothing like looking after a crotchety teenager in pain to make you take a break from thinking about work! It also proved that once a nurse always a nurse - I think I did a pretty good job looking after her, ensuring she was hydrated, in minimal pain, kept moving when able to and largely self-managing in good spirits.

However, sitting next to her for hours cuddling and just 'being there' gave me plenty of time for reflection and the opportunity to take a deep breath before launching into what promises to be an extremely busy next few months.

• Responses to salary and conditions survey are currently sitting at 311 which is fantastic but we need more.


• First meeting of 2010 conference committee is on Friday and what a motivated bunch they are - I am really looking forward to it


• Patient satisfaction data collection tool project is in its final stages beofre submitting report to the government. Thanks to all who participated- your patients love you!


• Nominations for Best Practice Awards are rolling in and the best part of my day currently and until it closes is reading the applications as they come in - inspiring. With the BPA awards this year we are having a one-day clinical symposium for practice nurses in Sydney where we are often criticised for not having much of a presence. I hope to see as many of the APNA Sydney members there as possible on the 27th November.


• Finalising the next strategic plan and consulting with you all on it - again is looking exciting but need to knuckle down and concentrate on pulling it all together


• And we are entering conference season for the general practice sector- while we can't attend all due to costs, we try to have a presence at as many as possible. Coming up are the RACGP conference, Australian Association of Practice Managers, Australian General Practice Network, Australian College of Nurse Practitioners etc.


• And moving offices.........

I hope you all saw our letter in Ausdoc this week regarding a cartoon 2 weeks ago. I would encourage any of you with sensible GPs to write in support of it or nurses generally. We were appalled by the demeaning portrayal of nurses and their clinical decision making in the cartoon.