Agenda for Change would be good, or National Programme for IT (NPfIT)!
Or you could have a rest! You certainly deserve one.

Much respect for both the way you do your job AND the blog.

Ive just come back from an Agenda for Change accreditaion course and now an accredited agenda for change officer. And i still am no clearer to understanding it! The last day of the course turned out to be a debating contest with the organisers and none of us are happy about the ridiculously over complex process and the stupidly low awareness the staff have off it. E.g in my department everyone has signed off their job descriptions without even knowing what for only to find out, i suspect, their jobs will be significantly downgraded. My personal opinion is that it will lead to a massive massive bulk of the workforce leaving in 3 years after the pay protection expires.

have a break!
Agenda for change - mystifying and stupefying in equal measure.
Alexx

as opposed to NPfIT, which is mystified and stupefying in equal measures... :-(

I wouldnt go near agenda! Just chill out have some fun, and write about how boring days off are and how u crave to get back to work, for something to do!

Help - please not Agenda for Change!!! I get that at home!!!

I'm sure there are many things you could write about that would interest and entertain us all. So sure that I've spent the last three hours, intermittently, trying to come up with some ideas for you. But I seem to have thinker's block. Sorry!
How about a Scaryduck-style 'here are six things I could write about' voteathon?

Just chill out and relax, you can't do everything at once and you deserve a break.
Thanks for the blog - avidly read!
I had cause to call on you guys at 12 last night for my 11yr old boy - not LAS, but regional, and they did a brilliant job. Thanks for all that you guys and girls do.

Well, I too have got a bit of time off only to find I have now got flu (extreeemely boring) as well as my other half who thinks I haven't got it as badly as him because if I did then I wouldn't be able to get out of bed either. Unfortunatley, we have a three year old so short of calling the social services one has to get out of bed to tend to child's needs and carry on as normal. How about running a short survey - are men worse at coping with minor ailments such as heavy colds and flu? I've been thinking (mildly seething) about it today and I think they most definately are! Carry on superb blogging and I hope you don't catch flu on your week off!!

It strikes me that you traipse around London quite enough in your daily job, although admittedly only one small area of the capital. I doubt that it's actually possible for an ambulance crew member to get through a whole week off work without being reminded of his job on a regular basis.

Take a break - just remind us before you do.

Take £5 out of your wallet. Now find 5 things to do in London in a day, spending no more than that £5. You may blag freebies off people / friends if you wish.

Fabulous idea! I used to have 5 pound days with my friend's daughter, when I lived in London. Go to Portobello Road, find the Frenchman who does 'banane-choco' crepes, go down to St-Martin-in-the-Fields and see a free concert at lunchtime and maybe have a nose in the market next-door, or wander down Picadilly, have some chestnuts from the vendor in Picadilly Market... Oooh, lots to do in London, cheap and on the fly!

Enjoy your time off - I do believe you've earned it!

relax and enjoy, but if ye insist that ye must blog, then here could be a starting point , abuse of the elderly by a leading light.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=606552
dungbeetle

Instead of Paragon City or Norrath, explore Azeroth. You won't be disappointed.

I used to play AC2, but it just got a bit too dull for me.

I meant Worlds of Warcraft, not AC2... to tell you the truth, I don't even know what game that refers to.

Heh, just me getting my fantasy worlds mixed up...

Unfortunately WoW isn't available in the UK at the moment - "Coming soon" is all they will pin themselves down as.

But I intend to get it when it oes come out - as it might be the fantasy MMORPG that my brother will be able to play.

Oh, didn't realize it was out over there. Well when it eventually comes out and you get it, tell me and i'll help your character out.

WoW UK release date just announced as 11th Feb - next week :)

You definately wont be disappointed, far better than EQ2 and CoH, imho.

PS - great blog, always an interesting read!
Kryten

AfC please, aka Agenda for Shrapnel. How long did you spend on your job descriptions?

Chromatin
Life Under the Microscope

Our manager wrote ours to fit the band he wanted us in and complained when we said 'but that's not what we do, and not what we were employed to do'.
Dontcha love it?

WE STILL DON'T KNOW!

The unions have voted on it, but EMTs still don't know for sure what band we are going to be in, what our mealbreaks are going to be like, or even how our contract will change.

For EMTs it's all one huge fk-up.

Id say wait till friday and go to paragon, what are you called there by the way, I used to go to Paragon City myself and hang around The Hollows until it was closed yesterday?

Hello from a long-time lurker...

Please, not AfC... I'm in an "early" implementer, and it still isn't right. Cannot decide if it is a Bad Idea, or a Good Idea that has been Totally Messed Up Beyond Redemption. It's got to the Animal Farm stage: "equal pay for equal work, but some are more equal than others..."

Have you been to Bletchley Park?

Here's a post for you, removal of Co-Proxamol from the public because its' used in "too many suicides" is a bag of arse.
Discuss. =0)

Kal

A question that I've really been burning on: what's the difference between, say, US EMTs and you all over there? It seems like you have a number of abilities that we don't (medications,) and vice versa (restraints.)

I sent you a copy of the (fairly average) Maryland EMT protocols a while back - I'd be interested to hear what you thought.

Quick version:
Our EMT-B(asic): 120 hours classroom
(various intermediate EMT types)
Our EMT-P(aremedic) ca. 2 years' collegelike curriculum

Trauma:
bandage, splint, Hare or Sager traction splints. Occlusive (sucking) dressings. Tourinquet. burn sheets. Tracheostomy and chest tube medic only.

Diagnostic:
Basic vitals + glucometer (some jurisdictions medic only.)

IV: medic only

Cardiac: automated defibrillator. Medics operate a full 12-lead.

Medications: (ambo carry: epi-pen (and jr.), activated charcoal, ipecac (seldom used.) Assist pateint with own albuterol, epi-pen, or nitroglycerin only. Medics have a tacklebox full of IV and other medications, including Haldol for chemical restraint.

Intubation: combitube in some jurisdictions, full intubation in others, medic only in most. Medication-paralyzed intubation medic only (or flight medic only.)

OB: basic and complex deliveries.

Death: declaration after obvious stillbirth, decapitation, after medical direction on failed CPR. Declaration for cardiac arrest + apnea in multiple casualty incidents.

Restraints: soft restraints.

Magical powers: On live radio with a medical direction physician, various and theoretically unlimited additional procedures can occur.