A Carte Postale of the Officers, Matron, and Sisters of the 42nd Casualty Clearing Station, 1917. Quite the inscription to the reverse, along with details in the ALT. #HistNursing #HistMed #WW1

Last night I was part way up to my shoulder in effluent, manually unclogging a bed pan masher. Happy #InternationalNursesDay.

ITV News just vox-popped an older northern woman who said that she had switched from Labour to Reform because she was angry that illegal migrants were “getting hotels when British people can’t get hotels”. At some point Labour surely just has to say these people are completely politically illiterate

this really does make me despair. this is a woman who has just got elected as a Reform councillor. she works for the NHS and wants to know “where the money is going”. it’s going on social care, babe

Next Sunday I'll be giving an online lecture for The Last Tuesday Society on my @bodleian.ox.ac.uk book ✨Book Curses✨. I'll be talking about curses like that of John Wryghtson, which sits opposite some rather threatening illustrations of surgical instruments (Ox, St John's, MS 76, f. 5v).

a woman got v shirty with me when I pointed out dogs aren’t allowed in the play park — I might not have actually said anything if the dog hadn’t been off the lead and bothering picnickers — and I’m not thrilled about a summer ahead of me of insisting that yes, children are more important than dogs

Up there is @pixelatedboat.bsky.social's (I think) tweet response to 'how would you die in the 1800s' along the lines of 'blasting a railroad spoke through my skull to get me some of that Phineas Gage money'. 'mad Phineas Gage money' surprisingly regular addition to our vocabulary.

Absolutely, and if one would like some inspiration one could buy a book written by a human called Eleanor Baker.

Still Waiting For My Medal

It is the anniversary of the My Lai massacre today. I'd say that even more than most years, it's important to remember what happened. And the role Hugh Thompson, an active serviceman, played in both stopping and publicising it. Despite enormous military, political and public pressure to stay quiet.

I realise I don't post on here much, you're not missing anything. However I turned up in a reel again @ox.ac.uk managing the doffing on the right-hand side. @burgonsociety.bsky.social @bodleian.ox.ac.uk . youtube.com/shorts/fthRh...

Mustache guys are either no nonsense or 100% nonsense

I am looking forward to seeing my weird article on J. L. Carr's Chaucer Pocketbook in print in @inscriptionjournal.bsky.social. This was a very much a 'I like these but do not know why, so let's think through it' writing experiment.

I used to write a lot about this and I just got so… tired. It hasn’t changed, it never changes.

This is really sad. I just feel so despairing about this and the fact that this profound failure won't be recognised as such by most politicians.

'The Towpath', Maida Hill Tunnel (1912) by Christopher RW Nevinson (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)

It was a pleasure to talk to English teachers at the @engfacoutreach.bsky.social Teachers' Conference about the Humanities course/ English stream of the Astrophoria Foundation Year at Oxford 💙💜

An illegal waste dump by an A Road in Oxford gets cleared, whilst one next to a primary school in one of the most deprived parts of Wigan...? On what is presumably the old Coal Board land, now 'owned by the Duchy of Lancaster'. Ah well you see, it's about the funds.

Outside the Level 2 Reading Room in @bodleian.ox.ac.uk there is a wellbeing display. Here are some it's little zines that genuinely made me smile.

A failure of leadership. A failure of the system. Our response to the #CovidInquiry Report finds a "toxic" culture led to a profound ignorance of how the #NHSFrontline functions. Clinical expertise was side-lined at the cost of 23,000 lives. Read our full response: ow.ly/1yjB50Y5rsk #IntensiveCare

He was a nurse.

#OTD An unknown Women's Army Auxiliary Corps Forewoman, 1918 or 19, inscribed: 'With love & best wishes N., France Jan. 7.' She displays her Forewoman's rank badge, blue & white Signal Service brassard, & private metal identity bracelet. From young me's WW1 photo collection.

A couple of days ago @robertculshaw.bsky.social proposed and I said yes 🍂

As I prepare for the first of my Christmas night duties, have one of my favourite festive WWI postcards: little kittens, cottage loaves, and a rather concerned Turkey. Detail in the ALT. #HistNursing #HistMed

A few more gems from David McLellan's days in the snow photographing British soldiers in 1917 (add these to the list of thousands of reasons why McLellan is my favourite war photographer of 1916-1918).

This wartime guide, First Aid for First Aiders Or What’ll I do? by Herry Perry, mixes advice with comic rhymes and illustrations. Perry, a celebrated graphic artist, served as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) during the war and remained on the Register of Assistant Nurses after 1945. #ArtOfNursing

When my new Staff Nurses in ICU ask about COVID.

Completed to see our Article published! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... @jodyedeox.bsky.social

Today, I can post this.

This wonderful 1917 portrait, of an unknown soldier on sentry duty in the front line, is in the William Nicholson exhibition at Pallant House.

Looking forward to what other regional employment tribunals the media will be reporting on en masse today! Race discrimination in Scunthorpe? Sex discrimination in Yeovil? Homophobia in Wrexham? Or is it only GCs who lost their case that get this treatment

The Tribunal also found that Peggie had committed harassment and transphobic hate towards Dr Upton. But for some reason this isn't being mentioned in the headlines. Imagine coming into A&E and being faced with this bigot.

Apart from anything else, this really embodies the Playmobil approach to workforces that politicians often fall into — it’s all very well and good to laud “frontline” NHS workers but without backroom staff the entire service would actually collapse.

I got tiny Christmas decorations so these guys could look festive. Yeah, fine thanks.

'But death replied: “I choose him.” So he went, And there was silence in the summer night; Silence and safety; and the veils of sleep.' - Siegfried Sassoon. Lines I've said at the bedside a few times.

Rather surreal, cold, yet exciting thing to be a part of yesterday as @ox.ac.uk's first line of defence and order (armed with an umbrella, a whistle and a small notebook). Hanging up the bowler for 2025.

One of my favourite collections that I've ever worked with was this set of Magic Lantern Slides produced during the First World War. They came to us packed in wooden crates, and we re-housed them into custom-made archival boxes, and had them digitized.

Wigan - the reconstruction of the old canal jetty which was known as Wigan Pier. My photo 1986. #WiganPier

I've the pleasure of some newly qualified Staff Nurses at the moment and, surprisingly, I like to provide historical context to ICU nursing. Enter this fabulous poster kept in the national archives: a scene I recreate daily with equally supportive looks of awe (but with a moustache). #HistNursing

I'm scrappily testing my Christmas card design for this year, which is the Green Knight holding his 'holyn bobbe'. Its modelled on this little medieval love token replica I have.

'His gentle nature has been really comforting.' - Patient & Family feedback that was passed on to me last night, heartfelt and you'd be forgiven for thinking I'm an ICU therapy dog.

Last graduation ceremony of the year done, last pair of black socks handed out 'yes, even with those heels'.

'A Zeppelin Raid, 8 October 1915', Camden by John Fraser (National Maritime Museum)

Halloween party ready with @robertculshaw.bsky.social (I'm a moth, he's a lamp).

Work (the non-bowler hat one) has been quite difficult recently. I don't think it could be sorted completely by the availability of a mysterious woodland nurse's hut to escape to, but it wouldn't do any harm. Carte Postale c. 1917. #HistNursing

When you're shopping in Paris and you spot your friend @eleanormaybaker.bsky.social's book in a famous bookshop! I was so excited 🥳

Patients on propofol in ICU often report negative & disturbing experiences, with distorted perceptions of reality, delusions & hallucinations. Propofol is unlikely to achieve reliable unconsciousness and may contribute to a negative dying experience. #AnSky doi.org/10.1111/anae...

Fantastic news and so well deserved!

I found this livestock auction poster from 1890 on the floor of an antique shop and had it framed for @eleanormaybaker.bsky.social. Absolute Units deserve all the fonts. @themerl.bsky.social

I turned up in an Oxford reel again. Potentially threatening caption.