Political Correctness? There are moments when the best staff know it's best to ignore the rules!

We are hugely grateful to AH for writing to us about his experiences in a Newcastle hospital. As a young man he, like many others on his ward, loved a laugh and joke with the nurses.

Having visited a chronically sick relative in hospital most days for the past year, I have been delighted that some staff have known, intuitively, when to 'break the rules' to bring comfort when it was most desperately needed. For example......

In my many moments of despair recently, several staff have hugged me. I suspect that this is definitely not allowed. Also, a few members of staff seem happy to share their great sense of humour. I caught one member of staff telling my Mum that her efforts over lunch had been 'absolutely hopeless'. He was laughing as he said it and so was she. She knew he was teasing her and she was grateful that he had seen that she was sophisticated enough to enjoy the joke.

Also, a personal plea to some nursing staff. Of course we all know that fire regulations are of the utmost importance. However I despaired when a healthcare assistant shouted 'Put that flame out' as I lit a single candle on my mother's birthday cake. As six members of her close family were around her at the time (including a former ward sister and a staff nurse), we felt we had assessed the risk of the single candle falling over. It would, at worse, have melted the icing. Also, as I politely pointed out, a birthday candle is never left unattended. There would be no point lighting one if no one was there to enjoy it.

We obeyed the rules (we had no choice), and we hastily blew out the candle.

Afterwards, I spoke to the healthcare assistant and the other staff. I understand the rules and I apologised for not realising we had broken them.

I also pointed out that it would have been great if some of the staff had accepted my invitation to join us for our short celebration and to share some of the cake.
It wouldn't have taken more than a couple of minutes to come across and join us in wishing my mum a 'Happy Birthday'.

As they knew, there was a reasonable chance that it might be her last!

Jill