The loss of the med branch!!!!

[vaughanD98]

Hi,

I'm a student nurse outside of the RNR and only joined to do some sort of med role within the med branch as i wall be joining full time once i finish my course. Since joining 16mths ago it has become impossible to join. The branch will not take students so i'm currently in GSSR and i'm told that there is room for a troop first aider. In order for me to do this role i first need to complete both AB 1 & 2 then i can start my First aid level 3 which is not that complicated.

Why get rid of a branch as important as the Med branch? Do the RNR no longer need Medics of some variety? If this is a tri service agenda how come the TA are activly recruiting student nurses?

 

[Chalky]

If this is a tri service agenda how come the TA are activly recruiting student nurses?

No idea, with regards to RNR but the TA would, one day, like a field hospital at full strength and in order to do that we need to get them in young, train them as CMTs and then send them off to the grey mafia ASAP.

The RN have no such broad requirement as their medical needs are much different.

Also, most of the AMS come from the reserves. Again, not sure about RN.

Basically, it's horses for courses.

 

[vaughanD98]

It has come to a pi#oint where i feel that i am not getting the training i need to become a good military nurse and am seriously thinking about transfering to the TA. A sad thought but i need to think about my training.

 

[theGimpMK2]

looking at what you are saying it seems that you are a civvy nurse still in training and when you have completed your quals you are going to join the navy as a doris.

If so why would the RNR spend time and money training you as an MA just so you leave and do naval nursing full time

I doubt they have "Got rid of a branch" ie the RNR medical branch

I know nothing about RNR MA training but to underestimate it and apparently want to use it as a time filler till you gain your nurses quals shows a disregard for the quality and quantity of training MA's receive

You are already exhibiting all the characteristics of a Navy Nurse and should fit in well

I'm having a bad day unlucky

 

[all_purple_now]

I'm a student nurse outside of the RNR and only joined to do some sort of med role within the med branch as i wall be joining full time once i finish my course. Since joining 16mths ago it has become impossible to join.

Why get rid of a branch as important as the Med branch? Do the RNR no longer need Medics of some variety? If this is a tri service agenda how come the TA are activly recruiting student nurses?

It would appear you have been misinformed. The RNRMB isn't closing (indeed, for the first time in many years there is a defined role & scale of complement), but a decision was taken (on Clinical Governance grounds) to shed the non-professionally qualified MSAs about two years ago.

16 months ago it was impossible to join, as recruiting was frozen. This is, AFAIAA, no longer the case, and the branch will take suitably qualified people. Unfortunately, students don't fall into that category, medical or nursing. As recruiting is not set by the DMS but by the three services individually, I can't speculate as to why the TA AMS is recruiting students - but I understand they are about to go through the same clinical governance related shedding that we had.

It has come to a pi#oint where i feel that i am not getting the training i need to become a good military nurse and am seriously thinking about transfering to the TA. A sad thought but i need to think about my training.

I am not sure what you think training as an MSA (essentially to HCA level, rather than to RN MA level) would actually add. Perhaps some time in GSSR would be good for you from an NGT point of view?

APN

 

[Chalky]

TA is shedding anyone from the clinical side of things who has little or no regular patient or clinical contact outside of the AMS.

CMTs from now on will have much more of a supporting role (ie putting up tents).

My unit, lawd bless 'em, is very keen to have CMTs train as instructors etc.

If a student nurse is also a CMT they will probably be retained in a clinical role due to their clinical time in the real world.

 

[vaughanD98]

You are already exhibiting all the characteristics of a Navy Nurse and should fit in well

I'm having a bad day unlucky[/quote]

Well ets hope you don't have a bad day when the rest of your life depends on us "dorris's". I'll stop now cause you were havin a bad day.....

 

[theGimpMK2]

The day I let a LUr NUr NUr make a unilateral clinical decision relating to my health and welfare is the day my arrse hole grows over.

Having quite a good day, just have little or no time for service nurses and their attitude.

Nice to see Doris's believing their input saves lives though, as opposed to the numerous layers of medical care in place which start at point of injury

I'll stop there before I rant

Get back to your bum wiping and calling doctors by their christian names

theGimpMK2
OUT

 

[andym]

I sense some disgruntlement there GIMP.You may have had a bad experience but dont tar all Medical staff with the same brush.Just as in any Branch there are some right numpties that have no right to be there.MA training is one of the longest in the RN,and its a course thats not too easy either.So whos gonna wipe youre arse if you got 2 broken arms?Or will you just lie there in a state of immense crabbiness?


As to getting MA training while being a Student Nurse,there maybe a few legal issues regarding it.I remember when i was an MA i could take blood and dole out pills etc to a Service patient,but to a civvy i was on dodgy ground,all to do with then ENB or UKCC or whatever they are calling themselves this week.


Go for it anyway,i did it the other way round,MA first then did my RGN later.

 

[all_purple_now]

As to getting MA training while being a Student Nurse,there maybe a few legal issues regarding it.

With respect, that isn't quite what vaughanD98 is suggesting (although it may be what s/he thinks they are suggesting, which may not be entirely the same thing.)

The RNR Medical Branch hasn't trained MAs for 15+ years, as it was taking too long to get people on the trained strength. Instead, the non-NN medical ratings were what was called MSAs (Medical Support Assistants) who were, to all intents & purposes, glorified Healthcare Assistants.

I'm not really sure what the benefit to a student nurse would be of training to be an MSA, even if it wasn't a dead branch.

APN

 

[hookyh]

That's a fair comment, except that myself and an oppo. of mine were working a ward as Haslar for a couple of weeks and were getting our taskbooks signed off for basic stuff by army HCA's who were (politically incorrectly) expected to do work that technically they shouldn't have been qualified to do as a matter of necessity due to lack of staff.

A Killick NN saw this and put a stop to it as apparently we (the MSA's) were more highly qualified than the HCA's, so to have them signing our books was a non-starter.

The point being that even the RN nurses saw us as being higher up than HCA's, and it turned out we WERE allowed to do stuff they weren't, (right or wrong), (i'm not trying to upset anyone here by saying i'm better than the next person). Anyone from outside the branch would see us as on a par with them to be fair, but the truth is that our training was always far more superior than even we thought, a fact that was borne out by the regular medical personnel from the other services giving us BZ's left right and centre when the branch was deployed to Iraq, even going so far as to send reports back to Pompey, (which the RN didn't like apparently).

Not saying the branch was full of supermen by any means, but when the crunch came the branch came up with the goods.

I can say this in an unbiased way to some extent as although i went to Iraq, it wasn't as part of the Med. branch deployment, so i'm not bigging myself up in any way, rather the ones who dealt with the conditions and the sights of badly wounded people and still did a professional job.

Last but not least, this isn't a drip or a flash from me due to being considered on a par with HCA's. I'm proud to have done their job at times and to have worked with them. Just wanted to set the record straight for those outside the branch.

Goodbye MSA's, hello DM's!

 

[all_purple_now]

hookyh,

Believe me - I'm not trying to do down the MSAs. I feel that the way they were treated following Telic was definitely poor, and the reasons given for closing the branch were spurious. However, not my call.

APN