Appalled with the NHS

98 year old with cancer yourself?

or are you claiming to be a Paramedic now as well?

Who exactly is it you empathise with?

You are entitled to an opinion and if that were all it was I doubt you would be getting the reponses you have been.

Once you let it be known that you were a trained (as an HCA) member of staff the dynamic changed. You are attacking a section of the NHS which you seem to know very little about, nor do I but then I'm not telling the whole service they are ****e. As a member of the public fine, I'm sure these lads (and lasses) have to put up with clueless attacks on their profession all the time but as a trained member of staff if someone came in here and said they had a few bad experiences with Nurses or HCA's and then wrote off every Nurse in every Trust how would you react?

Probably the same way they have?

Yeah and you would be right to as well.

Hmmm I don't think you quite understand what empathy is. You can put yourself in someone else's position in order to understand how they might be feeling without actually having been there yourself, you know. i.e. you don't have to have been a poor old soul with cancer to realise that they're already in pain and feeling hopeless without being bundled around like a piece of meat. On that note, to the rest of you "professionals"... I'm not quite sure why you're all suggesting that someone needs an official qualification in order to recognise when someone is doing a piss poor job. I don't need a degree in engineering to know that when my roof is caving in, the builders ****ed up. Likewise, no one needs to be a healthcare professional (of ANY sort) or, in fact, even have any experience AT ALL in such a setting to be able to recognise when someone is being careless or giving it less than 100%. You all have the right to disagree with what's being said, but you might want to consider either trying to explain why they were acting that way or try to give some solid examples to convince us that these incidents are in the minority... instead of just trying to make out that it's not true because someone who isn't "qualified" doesn't know what they're talking about. Basically, none of you are saying "hmm maybe these particular paramedics WERE being a bit shoddy, and should be ashamed of themselves for that, but that's not how it normally is" - all you're saying is "I wasn't there but I'm sure they were being 100% professional and you just can't see that because you're not experienced enough to know". That outlook is fairly idiotic, in MY opinion.

Wrong, that's sympathy. Because it's a shared experience you can directly relate to. Empathy is putting yourself in somebody else's shoes and imagining how they might feel.

Yeah they are and that comment doesn't make you any smarter.

If you are suggesting you know the mindset of a 98 year old cancer victim then you are wasted in nursing and art you should be on the big screen.

Sympathy is the word you SHOULD have used.

If you are not on the course, then you cannot say that you are a trainee nurse as you have not started your nurse training yet. I'm sure the NMC would also have something to say, perhaps?

The Bed was sad at first but moved on and is now happily married with 4 pillows.