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finds out about everyday life in the UK
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so today's topic is working at nights
[Music]
I'm just gonna talk about what I used to
do when I was working in the UK as a
mental health nurse
been a nurse since 2007 and before I
came to Japan and whenever I go back to
the UK for a long period of time I
usually do some nursing work one because
I really love it I love being the nurse
and and two because you know I need to
answer money just like anyone else so
well I loved going to work at night and
I still do first thing is usually for a
night shift to you you try and rest
before getting up so while everyone's
out in the daytime you might be in bed
or just trying to relax as much as
possible
first nights usually the hardest because
you have to change your routine to get
into the night routine
when you leave the house and I used to
leave the house around 8 o'clock or 8:30
to start a shift at 9:00 usually outside
there's not too many people about
there's not many cars on the streets and
most people are usually am already at
home you know trying to relax after a
long day at work
so while people are at home they're
getting relaxed I'm just going out to
work
and I like that because yeah there's not
much traffic on the road either so I
used to cycle to work when I was in the
UK and it's nice having the basically
empty streets
where I used to stay there was a big
hill overlooking the town and I was
staying on the top of the hill so it
probably dark outside by then that the
Sun had already gone down so at night he
got the fresh air it's already dark and
I'll get on my bike and at the top of
the hill was quite flat so had quite a
gentle downhill section the gentle
gradient so gradient means the the angle
of the of the slope like whether it was
high or low but this was quite low so
for the first part like a couple of
minutes you just glide along
and then it'll get steeper and we get
quite a lot of steeper so you'd pick up
quite a lot of speed but as I say it was
nighttime so there was not many people
around and then getting down to the
bottom of the hill there was still
another so with 10 20 minutes to cycle
to work
but I did it I used to cycle with my
earphones in listening to music trying
to get myself psyched up like getting to
try to get myself in the right attitude
for work and remember you know so
there'll be some cars on this street but
not many but apart from the cars at one
point in my journeys to work and on my
bike I used to cross the road and if I
worked five times that week I probably
see apart from one or two cars I'd see a
fox are tears a fox quite a lot
you know foxes tend to be quite
secretive they don't like to be around
people so I think that's why they like
to come out at night - so he or he's he
or she used to cross the road in front
of my bike and I'd be okay so he's
looking he or she's looking for some
food
you know I quite like that feeling
because foxes are quite shy create
creatures or they'd like to stay away
from humans but that he was like a
regular he or she was a regular feature
of my journey to work and they kind of
cheered me up to see seen that Fox
for some reason they always looks kind
of comical to me like they shouldn't be
part of this world because have you ever
seen a fox they're quite well the ones
in Brighton they've got big fluffy tails
it was colored very brightly it's even
in the dark he kind of everything else
was so dark colors
but this Fox stood out every time I used
to see it
it's after seeing the Fox there'll be
another couple of hills to climb up and
then cycle down and then I'd be at work
forgetting to work for nine o'clock in
that hospital a lot of people did non
they shift so they'd work for from the
morning from 7:30 and they'd work until
9:30 so if sometimes I'd see the same
people when I when I got to work at
night at 9:00 the people who were
working in the day they'd be getting
ready to go home and I guess they'd be
looking really knackered you know
because I'd spent a long day at work and
a lot of things to deal with but
sometimes in the morning at 7:30 when we
were all tired the same people would be
coming back to work you know so they'd
have a rest they'd had a night in bed
and they kind of got refreshed and
recharged and it would be us that was
looking knackered me and my colleagues
and they
shutting work it was time for a cup of
tea because usually tried to get to work
a few minutes before to get myself
settled in and get my mind ready to
start the shift and then two or three
colleagues would come in you know just
before 9:00 would you maybe a little bit
after
I guess people in the UK basically
they're punctual and they're basically
there on time for things but it's not
that strict and at least in the
hospitals I've worked you know people
are kind of easygoing as long as we get
the job done
but having said that it's not anyways
after getting settles having a cup of
tea having a bit of chitchat with chit
chats talk having a bit of talk with you
know my colleagues in the day from the
day shift we'd get on with work we'd
have a team meeting where the day staff
tell us what's happened in the day so
the day stuff give us a hand over so
they tell us what's happened in the day
with all the patients so then myself and
my colleagues who are the night staff
then we all know what's happened so
after the team meeting after we've kind
of got an idea of what's happened in the
day then there's kind of some routines
to follow we when I go around the
hospital check everyone's okay with our
own eyes we've had a report from the
day's staff but we also it's good for us
to actually some meet and greet the
patients on the in the hospital ward
so we go around another staff we'll
start one of the nurses will start to do
medicine and like medicine that there
and another staff and other staff would
do supper though some snacks
he had ed professor snacks and drinks
but the patients
in this hospital it was like 20 patients
and 3-star fat nights that is a mental
health hospital
so that was my speciality working with
patients with mental health issues
for now though
to say that I really loved working I
still do really love working in mental
health hospitals they're very unique
but it's it's actually a nice
environment if you can put yourself into
that frame of mind a lot of people say
wow I can work in the mental health
hospital be too scary meeting all kinds
of mad crazy people
actually it's it's just about life you
know everyone has a hard time sometimes
and it's just about supporting people to
get better and I really enjoy that that
side of things
yeah so after giving the medicine out
and getting supper and set meeting
greasing people usually people the
patient stay up until 12:00 and like
people are going to bed between 10 11
and 12
so last people up at 12 or hopefully
they're all in bed by 1:00 or 2:00 a.m.
so by that time you know we're feeling
like another cup of tea again so if
everything is quiet in the hospital and
there's no admissions that means there's
no people coming into the hospital to
the need to be in hospital from outside
then we can have a cup of tea and start
to do other jobs
we also arrange our breaks when all the
patients have gone to bed so you know
usually one person goes off on a break
at a time and leaves two other nurses
so after breaks about maybe it's around
four or five and then the patients may
start getting up at five or six five or
six o'clock in the morning
there's funny thing about mental health
a lot of people don't sleep very well so
they may not they you know they may not
be sleeping for seven or eight hours
they mind you be sleeping for well not
at all some people don't sleep at all
and some people would just sleep for a
couple of hours and then get up
maybe cuz their minds too active or you
know especially older people other
people who don't sleep much either and
part of our duty as in the hospital
outline is to check on each patient
every
every hour for patients who are we feel
are doing okay but for patients we are
concerned about we check on them every
15 minutes or every four patients we're
really concerned about maybe because
they're suicidal or something we check
on them where we have someone watching
them all the time
so that's called one-to-one observations
that's when one nurse has to stay with
that person even when they're sleeping
you kind of watch them through the door
or you have yeah you have to have
eyesight contact you have to see them
with your own eyes
there's also another type of observation
which is called arm's length
observations and that's when you're so
concerned about that person's safety you
have to be within touching distance of
that person to stop them doing anything
dangerous if they do something
is also two to one observations where
two of you have to be with that person
either eyes in eye contact or within
arm's length for that person I loved
heard stories about colleagues have
worked in prison have said they've
worked with patients where it has to be
four to one or five to one there's four
people watching one person because that
person is quite dangerous or dangerous
to themselves or dangerous to other
people but where I've worked I've never
had to deal with that and I guess I
would be quite scared if I had to deal
with someone who had to be watched by
four or five other people because people
were worried about them and their safety
though they would punch a staff member
or they try to hurt themselves
anyway
around five or six people started
getting up a few people start getting up
and funny thing about mental health
again people love to smoke so well now
there's a rule change in the UK
hospitals people are not allowed to
smoke in hospital grounds so in the old
days like two years ago and before
people could smoke we'd opened the
garden and people could smoke outside so
usually the hospitals have an outside
space a garden or a smoking area where
patients could smoke but nowadays in the
UK I guess they've got these new
electronic cigarettes so some hospitals
you can smoke the electronic cigarettes
inside at least if you're in your own
room
I'm not sure if that's a good thing or
not I guess there's less chemicals in
the electronic cigarettes than real
cigarettes that you burn with no made
from tobacco but yeah I'm not sure about
that
and then around 7:00 7:30 are depending
on the hospital the day staff come in to
replace the night staff so you know
breakfast starts around 8:00 to 8:30 for
the patients but before that the day
stuff come in and we have to give them a
report like a handover of what happened
in the night time
so yeah actually I'm a nurse so I'm in
the hospital you've got nurses doctors
another name for them is psychiatrists
occupational therapists and social
workers and the cleaners and support
workers and the managers so I'm one of
the nurses so sometimes I have to give
that report to the day staff you know in
the hospital I'm talking about at night
there's two nurses and one support
worker for 20 patients so me or the
other nurse usually gives the report
yeah I can give the report and it's not
a problem but sometimes I find if it's
been a really busy night my mind is
really frazzled and what I mean by
frazzled is ugly I'm tired I don't know
I'm not thinking straight you know I
haven't got a good clarity of thought as
no as when I'm fresh though my thoughts
all kind of mixed up yeah I find it
difficult sometimes especially if we're
really busy and we've been running
around trying to do lots of things
during the night
anyway so we gave the report hopefully
give a report which is understandable
and then it's time for us to go home so
if it's a good night you know say thanks
to my start where I've worked with a
nice one good job see you later see you
know for coming again to work tonight I
see you tonight
and he caught a good buzz like if
nothing's happened like if it all the
patients were safe if he got away with
you know a quiet night it feels good
it's a good sense of achievement
so after that like get on my bike and
it's this bike bike ride home now it's
the opposite I'm going home and it's
rush hour for people going to work in
the morning you know the streets all
busy this time all the traffic's going
in the opposite direction they're all
going into the town and I'm going out
over the town
again let's
Brighton's really hilly so there's some
big hills when you have to climb up and
there's some big downhill sections and
probably because I've worked all night
my head is a bit of a mess and like
because it's been busy and I'm frazzled
sometimes I love the journey downhill
like it's probably dangerous I've got my
earphones on on listening to loud music
there's more cars on the road I'm kind
of flying down the hill on my bike I've
got a bias as well from work like it's
finished
did okay like all the patients were
alright
it's a bit of a buzz on the way home
like a buzz by buzz I mean a good
feeling and then I get in the house try
and have a shower first thing because
possibly the work can be quite sweaty
and you can kind of smell a bit and
unfortunately yeah you know yeah you can
get dirty doing kospi the work because
sometimes you do have to get your hands
dirty doing one thing or another
and then to get myself a wish to have
some breakfast and going to bed I mean
that's a very simplified version I mean
one thing I'd say is that
my phone kind to bed by 10:00 or 11:00
is hard to actually sleep so you've been
awake since maybe eight or seven thirty
seven the evening before
with the daylight I've heard scientists
say it's hard to sleep when there's
sunshine and these you know I've worked
at night for quite a long time and that
is probably the biggest drawback is that
your sleep can get a bit messed up
you know it's hard to sleep in the day
so you have to have a really dark room
you know try not to listen to music or
watch TV before going to bed definitely
try not to look at your mobile phone
because that would just keep you awake
and it's really important to get to
sleep especially if you've got to work
again that night if you get home at
10:00 or get home into bed by 10:00 you
want to sleep as long as possible until
the afternoon or evening before work
okay that's a bit of a summary of
working at night in the hospital and
there is a few more things I could say
about it but I'll probably tell you next
time if that's okay anyway I'd really
love to hear about
any jobs that you've done especially if
he works at night so please if you found
anything interesting or you want to tell
me your own story about working at night
please leave me a comment on everyday
language dotnet my emails on their smart
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yeah and thanks for listening hope this
has been interesting and you have to say
if you've got any questions about the
language I've used or in the aspects of
know anything I've talked about about
working at night please let me know and
please tell me your own stories about
working we're really interested to hear
about them ok thanks very much bye