We are the masters of our own destiny!
The NHS has a culture of just getting on and trying to do the best for the patients who use its services. Unfortunately in more recent years the expectations on nurses and other health staff have become overwhelming and unrealistic. Since coming into the NHS I have seen the moral of staff plummet year on year and sense that it is now at an all time low. I too have been caught up in this feeling of impending doom with respect to my expectations of the NHS. On one occasion I was involved in a conversation about the NHS with some colleagues and hate to admit that I was “badmouthing” the NHS. Towards the end of this animated conversation I heard a voice say “If you don’t like it do something about it, or leave!” I listened hard and realised that this voice was mine. Now I am sure you are wandering if I have mental health problems, hearing voices. This isn’t the case, I don’t think. I was hearing things that I had heard said to me in previous careers that I have had.
I listened to the voice from my past and I refused to leave the NHS. I have decided to work hard and to try to control my own destiny within this work environment, pushing hard for promotions and working on steering committees. So, I listened to what I thought was right and have managed to progress within my field, this said I am now in a position that all I hear is how “its not fare how all men in the NHS get promoted and the pay is not equal for men and women!”
We all have choices to make in our lives. Some people will decide to take time off to have children; some will decide to further their education, whilst some will decide to aim for promotion. No choice should ever be viewed as bad or wrong, but an opportunity for experiences and learning. Accept the choices that you have made and if that means that after a career break you are not on the same grade a colleague who has not had a break be happy with the choice that you have made, don’t resent others for the choices that they made!
In short we should all stop any form of “badmouthing” as this implies that we are unable to be the masters of our own destiny, in other words “If you don’t like it do something about it, or leave!”