Category: Media

#BlueLightHappy campaign

Being a paramedic is one of the world’s most stressful jobs. Being exposed to the trauma of others on a daily basis and having to respond calmly in time-critical situations are difficult enough. Combine these with widespread incompetent management practices and a crisis in recruitment, and it is no wonder that the suicide rate in paramedics is widely believed to be amongst the highest in any profession. This moving account of the stresses faced by a paramedic provoked an outpouring of appreciation on social media. Similarly, in response to a snippy comment left on an ambulance windscreen, and other stories of paramedics receiving unwarranted abuse, paramedic Rob Moore used Twitter to urge the public to share good news stories using the hashtag #BlueLightHappy.

Patients queue to thank GP Richard Hughes

This is a lovely story of how patients queued for hours to thank Dr Richard Hughes on his retirement. An ‘event’ such as retirement provides a focal point for gratitude – it seems a shame that many doctors receive a show of appreciation only at the end of their careers. One of the characteristics of the way we express gratitude, in Western societies at least, is that it often signifies the ‘closure’ of a particular transaction. (The word ‘transaction’ here seems freighted with economic meaning, rather unfortunately, but the rhetoric of gratitude is saturated with economic metaphors.) This closing shapes the framing of the act of gratitude as a ‘reward’ for past service: in terminis res, as it were, rather than in medias res.