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Occupational HealthWellbeingOpinion

Ockey elf: Case management is not the end of the world

by Personnel Today 8 Sep 2008
by Personnel Today 8 Sep 2008

No sooner has the ink dried on the paper of Carol Black’s review than the whingers and moaners of OH are exercising their vocal chords in earnest. Now the hot topic of the day is: “Will we be case managers? If so, we should have (++) after our title as we’re OH trained nurses. SCPHNs in fact.”

Or specialist community public health nurses, for those of you who aren’t in the know.

Can’t you just hear those that moaned about that title now boasting about it with puffed up chests? We cannot, will not, be ranked with other mere mortals that are trained by these professional vocational rehabilitation companies. The irony of all this is that most of us have been case managers for years, but now it’s official – in a report, even – and we are less than happy and very indignant about it.

What does it take to make OH nurses happy? I can remember days when we would serve the visiting GP afternoon tea in china cups on a silver tray. Was that right? No of course not. GPs should get back to their surgeries, and if the new OH physician wants something to eat or drink, they get it themselves.

Our role has evolved, and we have this beautiful blue horizon with our names on it – a canvas for us to paint the picture. But the moaners are too busy looking back to the good old days when life was so much better.

We stuck on Elastoplasts, referred everyone to the doctor so as not to tire ourselves and had an easy time of it seeing the same shirkers twice a week, year after year, to justify our existence. Well, the times are a-changing whether we like it or not. But can OH nursing grow up and stop acting like a spoilt child? That’s quite another thing.

No sooner has the ink dried on the paper of Carol Black’s review than the whingers and moaners of OH are exercising their vocal chords in earnest. Now the hot topic of the day is: “Will we be case managers? If so, we should have (++) after our title as we’re OH trained nurses. SCPHNs in fact.”

Or specialist community public health nurses, for those of you who aren’t in the know.

Can’t you just hear those that moaned about that title now boasting about it with puffed up chests? We cannot, will not, be ranked with other mere mortals that are trained by these professional vocational rehabilitation companies. The irony of all this is that most of us have been case managers for years, but now it’s official – in a report, even – and we are less than happy and very indignant about it.

What does it take to make OH nurses happy? I can remember days when we would serve the visiting GP afternoon tea in china cups on a silver tray. Was that right? No of course not. GPs should get back to their surgeries, and if the new OH physician wants something to eat or drink, they get it themselves.

Our role has evolved, and we have this beautiful blue horizon with our names on it – a canvas for us to paint the picture. But the moaners are too busy looking back to the good old days when life was so much better.

We stuck on Elastoplasts, referred everyone to the doctor so as not to tire ourselves and had an easy time of it seeing the same shirkers twice a week, year after year, to justify our existence. Well, the times are a-changing whether we like it or not. But can OH nursing grow up and stop acting like a spoilt child? That’s quite another thing.

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