D90 Bridging the gap in #100WorkingDays

 Some of you will recall following my blog about my past and adventures that led me into nursing. Sadly the blog series came to a halt at the end of October ‘22 when my mum became unwell and died on the 1st November.

I’ve not written here since D58, and now this evening it’s D90. And the theme I’d chosen for today when setting up the blog was Sharing stories. So now’s a good time to tell a few, from my history as well as more recent. I love learning from stories and have always enjoyed hearing about the experiences of patients and what they’ve done. Going back a while a long term friend of mum and dad told me in a recent letter that she knew I’d won a beautiful baby competition. Not sure what the prize was and where this took place - south London somewhere I guess. I’ve asked for more details just in case they can remember. Of course my sister and me will have lots of stories to go over and recall to pass on to our grandchildren. 

More recently I’d caught up with story telling work that NHS England are working on as a way to help share the experiences of patients and their families. The Patient experience network is gathering such stories in a digital format. These are about having an approach that allows the people concerned to tell and have ownership of their story. They can say if they allow the story to be shared, to educate healthcare workers for example. Sometimes they like to keep the recording private as a way of having a record to pass on to their families. My involvement led to a story being shared by a hospital audience that included nurses and allied health professionals. Also present were the Chair of the Trust and an Executive. The impact of hearing the story has already led to changes, with more to come. Speaking up about our experiences, sharing our story however it played out is a powerful reminder to others of the impact that both poor care and good care will be remembered. 

People’s stories are easily visible on social media these days. I wonder what we have lost in them meantime. The WW1 survivor I met in the 1970s who’d been in the navy yet served on the Western front. He was a gunner and the early tanks apparently had small naval guns fitted. Sadly though I tried no one wanted to take notice at the time. I’ve had wonderful story tellers in my learning experiences and they have helped me appreciate the power of a story. My mum enjoyed a good story, the pile of books at her house is a reminder of that as she was re-reading all of Charles Dickens. Whatever you’re doing this Christmas take time to think about your story, and what the story of those you meet might be. 

We set up a memory book for mum, a place for stories.