I've been wearing my new scrub pants today, which are not quite an exact match for the official uniform pants color, but close enough I think. Thus far, no one has said anything. Although of course, I guess the real test would be one of our weekly meetings where the Head OT is present, and whether she would notice.

My parents just called to say they were getting on a Thames boat cruise...from what I've heard, it's a pretty nice day out there, even though it started out quite chilly this morning. Not sure I'm going to enjoy my summer here--everyone keeps telling me that it's not necessarily warm all the time, that the weather can in fact be on the cold side. And while summer is sometimes late in arriving in New England, I am used to it being summer once it's summer, meaning warm or even hot!

I've been quite frustrated today (probably since I've had time to be frustrated, I have had patients, but not a whole day's worth of work) in terms of a continual healthcare problem. I really wonder what makes people get into the field sometimes. In the US, I suppose you could point to money, since healthcare is something of a lucrative career choice at the moment. But over here, even though salaries are low since the jobs are government jobs, you get the same problems. Such as the SHO (resident) who had a meeting during normal lunchtime, and then took an extra hour for her lunch afterward, in spite of patients needing to be seen. It's just the nature of the beast in healthcare that sometimes you stay late to write notes, or you miss lunch, or you only get 15 minutes for lunch because we're in the service of our fellow human beings. And when you get people who don't care about patients as individuals, and aren't cognizant of being respectful, and aware of maintaining people's dignity, and addressing all the problems that need attention...you really wonder why people didn't choose a different career path. Healthcare jobs are not thankless jobs in general, but some days it can feel like that, and you have to remember that you're dealing with people who are unwell and under a lot of stress, and on days where you yourself are under the weather, patience is more than a virtue, it's a lifeline. I've seen even good, caring, committed therapists lose it on days where they're stretched too thin. So it's hard to ignore the casual indifference of healthcare professionals who aren't doing their best for people who have come to them for help and have every right to expect the best treatment for their problems.