What is your ‘normal’?

I'm not convinced that a week can be normal when working in health care. The potential for an unusual or unexpected situation, outcome or presentation is ever present. In my previous column, I proffered that there is something comforting about the feeling of normality. Perhaps then, we attempt to comfort ourselves with thoughts of the mythical normal week? Is it perhaps possible that we have normalised the unusual? I suspect most of us still relish the diversity and variation associated with a role like ours. So as I settle down to write this column, I thought I'd review my past week and share some of my experiences.

It started somewhat unusually, with a clinical shift in the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) providing clinical support to EOC colleagues and remote advice to operational clinicians. I'll work in the EOC periodically, as it helps me to maintain competence and it's an opportunity to work within a system I am responsible for. It was a night shift (also unusual nowadays), during which I provided advice on some very complex incidents, not least supporting decisions related to an end-of-life patient.