[00:00:00] Dan: Hello, and welcome back to we, not me, the podcast where we explore, how humans connect to get stuff done together. I'm Dan Hammond, [00:00:13] Pia: And I am peer Lee, Dan Hammond. How are you? And I think I know what the answer is. [00:00:19] Dan: Loaded, you might be able to hear some of this in my voice. Although I, I hear them, I'm sounding a lot better. I've got the dreaded COVID at the moment pier. I have actually the um, after many men, I dunno how many of these little lateral flow tests I've done? [00:00:33] Pia: You got the two [00:00:35] Dan: I've got the two lines. I'm two Dan, two lines Hammond at the moment positive for COVID. and I have to say, even though I think some of these earlier horo variants, people were drifting through them as if it was a cold. This has been a little bit grim. [00:00:48] Pia: is it, has it been like man flu on steroids? [00:00:54] Dan: well, honestly, I have to say it's sort of to honest, seeing the second line was great, cause I felt rubbish and I was being a bit windy, but then it's pretty because if you say I don't feel very well people think, man, for you can just say I've got Krenn. Oh, [00:01:06] Pia: oh [00:01:07] Dan: I've actually got proper sympathy now. It's brilliant. I think I might just keep one of these and wave it about whenever I'm feeling a little bit, sort of little bit iffy. I'll just say, [00:01:16] Pia: and, you know, and I think it was you that came up with a staggering piece of probably absolutely correct research that, getting COVID was the longer you lasted was dependent on how attractive you were. So you've lasted an awful long time. [00:01:33] Dan: have. I think this I'm I'm by far the most attractive person in our company, that's for sure. In Squadify with, and I've out beautified pretty much everyone, actually that I know. Yeah. Frankly. And most of the population, thank you. And anyone who knows me knows that the first thing they think when they think about me is. God. What a St I mean, absolute heart throb. Exactly. I think people, so this comes with no surprise to anyone. [00:01:57] But I am gonna do a little segue because our guest today, one of these many lives is actually to be a model. Which joking aside is something that. I'm unlikely to find a second career in, but he has. but that's not what he does most of the time. He's mostly a uh, lead nurse in an accident emergency unit. He very close nearby to me in Yorkshire. And he has a lot to say about how humans connect in his many worlds to get stuff done. So I'm really looking forward to hearing from him. Let's go and talk to Andy Boocock now. [00:02:30] [00:02:30] Dan: Andy. Thank you so much for joining us today on we, not me. It's great to see you. [00:02:39] Andy: Great to see you guys fabulous. [00:02:41] Dan: thanks for being here, Andy. Get us kicked off. Just tell us a little about yourself. How did you end up? I think you got an interesting story. So tell us a little bit briefly about how you ended up here. [00:02:51] Andy: Well, I started life in Ilkley little town, west Yorkshires, you know, it very well. There's a butcher ended up married to a sweet young girl whose dad was involved in nursing which is a profession I took up. I've been in the NHS for about 35 years as a nurse Ana con care ICU with a little. But in the middle where I did 10 years as paramedic amongst other things that's what I do. Um, uh, I get a buzz at helping people. And I think as a nurse, you sort of actually, your role, [00:03:20] Dan: That's the core. Oh, excellent. Well, we'll visit a few uh, few of those topics where you help people along the way. I suspect Andy, but brilliant to have you on the show. So as you know, we, we torture our guests with first of all, with a conversation starter card just to get to know a little bit about you. So, I'm gonna pick a card out random and that card is. well, this is interesting. So my worst job ever, was [00:03:44] Andy: I think I come from an age where if I didn't like a job, I just used to like leave on a Friday and got another job on the Monday, it was simpler. I got a job in the kitchen at a psychiatric hospital and I was mopping the corridor. No, I I was going down the corridor and there was a guy mopping, the corridor and the bloke collapsed on the floor and the guy just mopped around him and eight just did me incomplete. Really panic string. They obviously knew this guy. I think he'd done some kind of dying Swan get me some attention, but nobody was bothered. I'd never seen that before. [00:04:22] Dan: Not surprising. That's an image that's an image that you'll never forget, I'm sure. [00:04:25] Andy: Oh. I remember I'd started my nursing. I was doing a student placement in a and E where I work now. And one of our regular customers decided to lay himself on the floor, outside the department. Again, it's some, there's a student nurse, not something I'd ever seen. And I went out and was quite concerned. And the senior sister just came up the army and said, so, so get up. And he did. [00:04:50] Pia: You run off [00:04:51] Dan: Just did [00:04:52] Andy: I think you were gonna have to get stretches and ambulances and all sorts [00:04:55] Dan: just, that's an early lesson. Isn't it. That's [00:04:58] great. Perfect. [00:04:59] Pia: it's a, picture of compassion really, that, that sort of sticks in your mind there. So I mean, you, you know, Andy, you are right at the front line you've had a long career and I would imagine the last few years have been particularly intense. So take us into your world, What's it like? [00:05:16] Andy: Current world is absolute madness. The pressure on A and E departments and the NHS in general is absolutely phenomenal. I'll give you an example that the departments I work in, if you go back say. A year I'd been charge on the Friday night shift in the Saturday morning. I'd hand over to the day team. And you'd hand over a dozen, maybe a dozen and a half patients with about an hour's. Wait, about a month ago, I handed over eight o'clock on a Saturday morning, 57 patients with a 10 hour wait. And we, we are a small district general hospital. We're not in any city, inner city. [00:05:59] Pia: So what's happening? [00:06:00] Andy: We are a little bit dumbfounded to say the least ourselves, but currently it's been all over the news over the last couple of days that the, all the ambulance services are all on a critical level. This happens with us. We have no capacity a great deal of the time. So ambulances back up outside the department with patients on board. Which is fine, cuz the patients are safe in the ambulance. Isn't getting any treatment they should need. But when you phone for an ambulance there isn't one there. Cause they're all stuck outside a and E with patients on board, they're unable to decant. If you get my drift. [00:06:39] I've got a friend who works for a local ambulance service to an adjoining county to mine. And it was middle of the week, about six weeks ago, if you'd have phoned for an ambulance and with every respect you needed an ambulance, there was only 186 people in front of you waiting for an ambulance, which gives you some idea of just how sort of rough it is at the minute. [00:07:05] The system is I've well, we've never known anything like it at all. There's a large issue with people getting to see the GP face to face which in itself is an issue, but what's happening is patients are once they've tried and better tried and tried again and then tried again the week after they give up trying and they just come to a and E. And you can't blame 'em cuz they need seeing, because they've missed, it's probably not an a and E problem. It's certainly not an accident and it's not an emergency, but it is he's addressing. And it's their only option. The other side of it is we have this system now called one, one, one where you phone one, one, and basically they tell you to go to a and a. [00:07:52] There's also a massive recruitment issue with nursing at the moment. So we are thin on the ground to say the least, and a lot of our staff are not newly qualified, but of minimal experience. Somebody like myself, a lot of what I do on autopilot. It's like driving. I've seen it so many times cuz like 30 years worth, and I not say struggle, but I'm, you're acutely aware constantly of what's going on around you, but you've seen it and you've done it and you know what's gonna happen. Whereas if you've been in the profession maybe 18 months or two years, it's a real eye opener [00:08:29] if you go back a good, while you say nursing was a vocation, you didn't need paying, cause you got that much job charge, satisfaction out of it, [00:08:37] Pia: Said that about teaching as well. I remember. [00:08:40] Andy: It's a, there's an aspect to it. It's a buzz, it is, it's a ridiculous pace. It's often life and death situations. And it's, as long as you're winning, it's great, it's like being in a race that you shouldn't win, but you are doing. And as long as you're in that position, it's good. It's when you start to, sometimes it's blatantly obvious that your best isn't good. Because you, haven't got two sets of eyes, two sets of hands, and for myself, I take a step back, Look at the situation process, what we need to doing and get on it the best way as you can, whereas the younger end, it, you can see it sort of quite physically upsets them. It's not the best place for 'em and to combat that we, you know, we try and maintain morale. You try and see if sort of funny nursing humor is something you don't wanna go there. If you're not a nurse, honest to. But the conversations we have, which make you laugh, it helps an awful lot things like the banter, in our little world, we are quite, I dunno, politically incorrect quite often, things we say to each other, but we know it's in humor and in, in, in good taste amongst the people involved. Other than trying to, you wouldn't say there's things you say to your colleagues that you won't say to a patient, [00:09:49] Dan: for sure. That is good. so in that example where you're handing over 8:00 AM on a Saturday, you does the whole shift change then. So it, you working in with the same team through a shift, and then you hand over to another team for that next shift. [00:10:05] Andy: and then, and then they would hand over to me their shift on the following night. But, if you can go into your department and start with a level playing field, that's re you know, it's got capacity, if it's becomes messy, it's your mess. You, you know, What's going on, is much easier to deal with than inheriting in, if you inherit somebody else's mess. You know, but the, we're there 12 and half, 13 hours per shift. And by the end of it, you've had enough, you got hold your hands up and say, somebody else can have a go see thing, sort it out. [00:10:37] Pia: And how does teamwork work in a, in shift work? Cause you must be coming on with a shift that you don't know, or you don't know the people. So how does that work? [00:10:46] Andy: Well, you get your nursing team. I quite often be myself and probably five nurses cuz we have six areas that need covering and every now and again, we're an extra nurse, which is brill, cuz that gives us a little bit of maneuverability. We split the team up into different areas, we have a red side, a blue side, they're only called that just to differentiate what they are the red is have he might as well be called purple. You know what I mean? He's not of any [00:11:13] Pia: It's nothing to do with Liverpool football [00:11:15] Andy: No, not Liverpool's fine. Near the football team that plays in red's not. Lead some myself anyway and you've got your team, you it's important that you know your team's capabilities, capacities, you've got to utilize the skills experience you've got for whichever areas need covering, you know, our high end is our resus, I'm sure you know what a resus is, small room with minimal beds and very sick patients. We obviously need experienced staff at that end. We also have minors, which aren't, they still need as much attention, but they're not uh, how can I put it critical so you can afford to put your less experienced nurses that side. And this is all dependent on whether you get the appropriate experience staff to make up your team. [00:12:00] It's important that you know, your, your, your your team's strengths and weaknesses which I'm afraid. It's not always the case. Cause through hospital nursing numbers, it's quite regularly we all have agency nurses with us who have capacity, knowledge experience, but they don't know the department. They don't, they are able to deal with the patients one on one very well, but if you are in emergency, will you go and get me something such and such or tell so, and so they will have a clue. You talking about, you know, cuz they don't know the area. [00:12:34] Dan: So how, what other factors make teamwork work, Andy? I mean, how else can it sort of, go? Well, what do you need for it? And what else can make it go a bit pear shaped. [00:12:44] Andy: to make things go well, as I say is I'm, I. 99% of the time. I'm the shift leader, the team leader, if you like. And as I said earlier, if you need to know your team's capabilities, you need team players that are willing to swap roles, swap positions, assist in different areas. To get the best out of somebody you've gotta keep them comfortable in the area they're working. [00:13:09] It's great to be stretched as a nurse, you know, to learn new things. But when the brown stuff sit in the fan, you've gotta know that whoever's doing whatever he is doing, knows what he's doing and he is not frightened to death, which I'm afraid is often the case. You know, a lot of people have confidence to stand up and say, look I'm really not, I'm sort of outta my depth. It's it's not a good place to be, especially when newly qualified staff, because their confidence is wafer thin. And if you were to put them in a position where confidence is broken or, things go disastrously wrong, which I have witnessed it's can be devastating for said individual, [00:13:44] Dan: Sounds really difficult where you, as the team leader, you you are walking a knife edge, aren't you between you've got, you don't have the bandwidth to do everything yourself. You've got to delegate, let people do things. And yet you may not even know if they got the capability of doing that in the moment. [00:14:00] Andy: They won't wanna tell you that, you know, agency nurses, especially, if they have limitations or not experience certain aspects of what we do, it's something that perhaps they don't wanna tell you. And you certainly don't wanna find out when it's too late, cuz in a and E, you never know what's coming through the door ever in what capacity. Some of our worst patients have walked in rather than coming by ambulance. There's no sort of structure to it at all. You know, It all goes off all the time. [00:14:30] People think it's all about blood and guts and gore, which is some, sometimes the case, but dealing with somebody who's lost a limb for instance, is a piece of cake compared to dealing with the parents who've lost a child. The psychological aspect, the relatives of really sick people is where you are stretched, you know, your compassion and your standing and empathy towards these people is, you know, vital. And it's an area that needs an experienced head. [00:15:04] The best people often for that role are people who aren't actually qualified. But you'll have what would used to be called a nurse in auxiliary. They're now called healthcare assistance. And they might not be skilled to death in God knows what, but actually talking with compassion to a, a person, is something they've done for years, cuz they've brought up kids and you know, had deaths in the family and babies and God knows whoever else they're gonna do. [00:15:30] I have a pet hate of somebody actually saying I know exactly how you feel. Cause I believe that nobody knows how anybody feels, you think you do, but you don't. [00:15:38] Pia: And I'm really intrigued by the, the, the meeting, the sandwich in your career here about being a paramedic for 10 years. So you're out on the road, literally. How is that different? Because it's a different teamwork, I would've thought, you've got a number of stakeholders to work with as well, the police or the fire as well. [00:15:57] Andy: Well, the, the difference being paramedic initially it'll be you and your mate. So there's two of you instead of about 10, which makes life a little bit easier. And then when your mate's driving you to the hospital and you are in the back of the ambulance on your own, your team of one, and in all honesty, I find that the easiest way to play, because you know exactly what needs doing, what's been done, what you can't do, what you can do and what you know, you've got, you know every aspect of what's going on, which I was quite often I needed help and got it. But it's I think working on your own is, there's a lot to be said for it. You know what you're doing, you not relying on anybody else and you know, you're no illusion that anything's gonna get done unless you've done it. [00:16:41] Pia: Yeah but how, you know, quite a lot of those, You see those motor accidents, you've got multiple agencies coming together. How does that work? Like where do you fit in then? Because you don't know anyone and you're just turning up at a really awful situation. [00:16:56] Andy: when you really are sort of, feeling your way, help when you're desperate for help and help comes. you're grateful, For, to of any fall, should I say? And you know, if somebody's proficient and qualified as a paramedic or as ambulance crew, you know, you can ask them to do anything you need to do. The hardest part of that is, is if you are the first on scene say a multi fatal road traffic or, where there's a lot of patients you are seen as, you know, your, your commander, if you like. You are the one who's, who's supposedly controlling what's going on. But at the same time, you've got people trying to pull your left right and center. Cause they're convinced that they're whoever they're with needs seen first. [00:17:41] And he's the same in a and E. If you get a really sick patient, it's very tempting as the most, not qualified really, but experienced nurse to get involved. Cause it's important, but we've had up to 88, 90 patients at once in the department, and you can't afford to spend too much time with any one, because you take your eye off the ball. God knows what gonna happen. [00:18:07] Dan: No one else is gonna do that if you don't, I guess everyone else is down at the [00:18:11] Andy: Everybody's got eyes on their little bit of [00:18:13] Dan: yeah. And you've got to be elevated. Yeah. However tempting it is. Yeah. I'm sure that's hard. [00:18:18] Pia: and what Andy, another one I, another area I think of is the very dark days of COVID. [00:18:25] Andy: When I did my nurse training and when I did my paramedic training, we were taught all about pandemics, but we were also told that there's, don't worry, cuz there'll never be one because there haven't been [00:18:38] Dan: Since 1918 or [00:18:40] Andy: With medical science being what it is it's never gonna happen. And then boom. It was quite a leveler really, because it was something that none of us had dealt with at that level before. And it initially, and the people thought we were really busy. Well, we were, but it was with a handful of sick COVID patients because all the minor patients somehow stayed away. If you looked in the waiting room, very, very quiet in the department, it would usual chaos, but it was the workload numbers wise. Wasn't a patch on what it is now. But it was a real opportunity to learn something new. [00:19:20] I got a friend who was a medic and he ended up in the Gulf War. And I had said to him, what was it like? And he, he said it was terrifying, but it was also a privilege because for him to be able to use his skills on that level, he really sort of enjoyed it in a strange way. And I think COVID was the same. [00:19:42] Up till COVID? I didn't know anybody who dealt with anything like that, and now obviously I do, but you know, I was there, we, we did what we did and we did it to the best of our abilities. I, you know, I'll never forget seeing some of the nurses with the imprint of a mask on the face for like hours after a shift. You know, we're not talking the little surgical paper band with like, like a bloody gas mask, the plastic thing. And they just went, you just worked on and on. [00:20:10] Dan: Andy, I just wanted to dive into one thing about your environment, which is fascinating to me. We've, it's about this banterous, sort of that nursing culture thing where you just say outrageous things. If anyone sort of, if anyone heard you talking amongst your team, we'd probably be absolutely what? And and we, you know, we talk a lot on this show about psychological safety, how people feel safe in a team to be able to say, speak up and say, I, I don't under don't know, or I don't agree or whatever, but at the same time we've seen these teams like yours. Like in the military, for example, or in the fire fighter that we talked to had the same thing where you think, wow, you say some things that in the corporate world, you just, where you be fired for a start, but actually it appears to be a higher level of performance, even when you can do that is needed. How, what's your thinking on that? How do you balance this whole thing and make sure everyone feels okay, but at the same time, you don't lose that, you don't become that sort of careful culture that probably wouldn't help you? [00:21:07] Andy: I honestly don't know. It's something that over the years, it's something that sort of evolves. in your personality, if you like. And also you, if you've worked with your team members on the whole, for a reasonable amount of time, you sort of know their quirks. And over the last weekend we had a guy came in who thought had a stoma, and I asked one of my colleagues who was a fabulous girl, she really is, but she's. How can I pull it? Sters are not my thing, and I asked, we asked her to go do it. Her face was an absolute, yeah, it was so nothing was only changing his bag, but her face were a picture. Absolutely. But that will be brought up every time anything comes in like that they'll, you know, she'll be the, she was, it's that kind of thing, you know? We have patients with should we say foreign bodies in certain crevices? You know, they become the star of the night [00:22:02] Dan: It's not quite like employee of the month, you have a slightly different. [00:22:07] Andy: Whoever whoever deals with such a, you know, with whatever's appeared or disappeared. You know that some, there's always some sort of funny aspect to it, which is you knows. Great. And it's it's, I don't know. It's what we get along with. We have a laugh and hopefully keep everything on track. Keep everybody happy. [00:22:28] Nurses are a breed apart. It's a lifestyle more than a job. It's, the workload's ridiculous. It's, it's beyond daft. It really is, but you just keep keep going. [00:22:43] Dan: Yeah. You probably need a different style to even survive. I'm sure. [00:22:48] Andy: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. There's, horrific things happen. And then it's your tea break. So you forget all what's happened and gonna have a cup of tea, or, you finish your shift and you're supposed to just sort of Twitch off and go home. And that's what we tend to look like, but I'm, I'm pretty convinced I've got post traumatic stress disorder. [00:23:06] You're drip fed it over months and years and years and you know, some of my girls at work, they're only just out the teens and in all honesty, I don't think anybody of that age needs to take on the stuff that we take on and take it into your head space because they should be out, I mean, a good time and enjoying their youth, partying and traveling and doing what they should do rather than, you know, on top of the, you know, the dramas and the traumas and the horrors of dealing with what we do. We also, you know, we get loads of abuse. We physical assaults on staff, you know, these, girls, nurses, men, whatever, they're all doing the best. But when a patient, when somebody's been waiting 10 hours to be seen, they're really wound up, their relatives are wound up. It's not something you want you, if it, your kids say you want, it's not something you, you'd want them experiencing. [00:23:59] Dan: And is there any support for the, for people around that that trauma, you know? [00:24:04] Andy: Uh, there is, yes, there is. And we're very aware of it now. If something horrible happens, it's all gotta be dealt with, but hopefully there will be a debrief. [00:24:13] When I joined the ambulance service, which was in 1996, we were a group of newly new ambulance trainees, tra I was what I call a direct entry paramedic at the time, i, I, you know, had to do my training and carry on. And one on one of the introductionary lectures we were told, know, well, if you've faced anything drastic, which you will, and I did, it's gonna, you could quite find it quite upsetting and that, you know, there is counseling and support available. But wouldn't recommend you ask for it, cuz we'll just think you're soft. [00:24:45] Yeah. [00:24:46] Dan: So give with one hand, take with the other. [00:24:49] Pia: I'm really hoping we have moved on. [00:24:51] Andy: It was a long time, you know, it was like best part of 30 years ago now, whatever it was, and there's an awful lot of camaraderie, we constantly have ambulance crews in and out of our department. And having worked on both sides. I know what it's like. And well, I personally try to make time, make sure they've had a drink, look after 'em and you know, they do the same with us. [00:25:11] You know, We often, well, once or twice to say the least we've had unruly patients. And if there's me on duty with six girls under five foot, and somebody starts kicking off, if there's a paramedic round to gimme a hand, it makes a lot of difference. [00:25:24] Pia: That's definitely a we not me moment. Isn't it. You don't wanna be on your own at that [00:25:28] Andy: he's great feeling, having a really effective and supportive team around you. And it's an area that is vital. [00:25:36] Dan: Indeed. And so Andy, following you on social media, as I do, I think you live about three, possibly four lives. So I'm gonna take taking you outside. I'm assuming you don't sleep at all, but but I'm just gonna take you outside this crazy world of the NHS, into the other crazy worlds you're inhabit. So you have a, your, your persona of very inky dude, you're a musician talk, talk, us about some of those things [00:26:01] Andy: Uh, Well, I I do a fair bit of sort of, uh, promotional work, shall we say? I do modeling photo shoots for various brands. I'm working with some cracking brands at the minute. One's called War Paint UK. They're brilliant. And it's I will mention them cause they're so good. These are a couple of girls who, through horrendous situations of losing uh, family members with cancer. Including children. Also suffering cancer themselves have set up this company called War Paint UK, and they make clothes specifically for people who are suffering from chronic illness as in children's hoodies or adult hoodies with a, a zip on the arm and an inbuilt tourniquet. Pockets for stomas or syringe drivers. there's, you know, no need to go to go to hospital for your checkup and to disrobe and wear hospital gown. Cause everything's accessible through this track or hoodie or whatever you're wearing. And I've done a fair bit of commercial work for them and I'm do some more. And that's the link with what I do for a living. [00:27:06] Other ones, all sorts local brands. I was booked to work at the Tate Gallery in London, but that got COVIDed, It it didn't happen. I worked with York Fashion Week an awful lot. I had my own show there again that got squashed by COVID, but just on the spring summer at the beginning of the year, I think I did seven or eight catwalks and numerous photo shoots, and we are now setting up the one in October. Uh, It's a sharp contrast to my average daily life work life. And it's great. I make a lot of fabulous people go. A lot of parties drink a lot of champagne and that's how I like. [00:27:41] Dan: Sounds sounds perfect. It's uh, does sound very good. [00:27:46] Andy: The inky do comes from some, some gaze said he looks like a really, that, that guy looks very, that dude looks very inky or something and it sort of stuck. But somebody referred to me as that colored in nurse. Yeah. [00:28:00] Dan: The rest of them just haven't been colored in yet. [00:28:02] Andy: Yeah I tend to stand out I do my best for all the patients as the best I can. And they, they don't all know what I'm called my name and that's what I've asked for that colored in nurse, but which I thought [00:28:15] Dan: That's perfect. So very sweet. That's very sweet and music, Andy, I think just as well, despite the fact that you lost your hearing from too much music early in your life, I think I particularly love the the tattoo on the side of your head that says that. [00:28:29] Andy: I've got mute science above my ears. I was lucky enough to be 18 in 1977. It works out how old am. And my eyes were opened by the Sex Pistols, the Clash, and these amazing punk rock bands that appeared. And I absolutely loved it. I started learning to play guitar, play bass uh, also started DJing and then followed about four decades listening to far too much music, far too loud. And it blew my hearing out the water. I've got a hearing system installed in my ears, which is Fab's got the lyric system uh, got looked after by the hearing suite in Harrogate. Great place. Really good. And yeah, I'll do all right. I'm still playing me bass and I'm still making too much noise and I'm probably still doing damage to my hearing even more, but.. [00:29:13] Dan: It's perfect. And I've seen the Daisy Man in action, which is wonderful. And you look, you sort of have another band that you have alongside you at a lot of these gigs. It would be great to talk about that. Cause I think there's a real, there's another example of how you've really connected with with other folks to get things [00:29:29] Andy: Yeah. The these labs are called the Ectix E C T I X. Brilliant. There set of lads with some issues. They're on various spectrums. And they are cared for by a good friend of mine called Alan, and these lands set up a band and they perform with us on a very regular basis. Uh, they support us. We try to take them wherever we play, we take them with us the best we can. they are great to see lads with learning difficulties or whatever, doing what they do like they do it is brill. You know, they can sing, like won't believe one of them's sort a concert pianist. His capability is incredible. And you, you've gotta really sort of encourage these people cuz whatever you've got you've to make the best of it. And they are just something else. They do so well. They've got an awful lot of gigs of their own right. [00:30:23] There's a song, one of the lines is I don't belong here. But to see, yeah, a loud singing I don't belong here and you can see looking at him that he thinks perhaps he doesn't belong here, cause he's in a room full of people who perhaps we would describe as sort of normal. And he's not the same as them. But he's, you know, he's up there doing it. And these people are watching him and he's got bigger bollocks than a lot of them. [00:30:52] Pia: So I'm going to, I'm gonna ask you an interesting question here. So, it's just one, one to think about. You've told us, like, I feel like I've had a sort of a big film view of what it's like inside a hospital right now. It's like a sort of very, beautiful illustration. [00:31:07] What has drawn you to this life where you are giving 110%, so many different aspects. How does it relate to working with people to get things done? Because you're doing some pretty amazing stuff. [00:31:18] Andy: I I don't seem to be able to remember quite how it felt when I was. Newly qualified or say, you know, not so experienced. But over the years you, you become aware of the good feeling you get from making a difference to people. You know, It's something as simple as some old boy wants to phone his daughter and we don't have a phone. I'll let him use my mobile, you know, uh, and little silly stuff like that, you know, It makes a massive difference. And I like to make a difference to, you know, anybody that I can. It's, I I seem to attract all people that fall over, you know, I live in the middle of Leeds, and every time I go somebody falls over. It's always strange thing is though I, I like example two examples this week. One was an old lady getting off a train with a case. And I was about the fourth passenger waiting to get on, but the three people in front of me, not one of 'em wait to help her with this case, get off the train. And I did, you know, I can't bear stuff like that. [00:32:25] And old lad in Leeds, he'd obviously had a stroke and I'm walking towards him and I could tell he were gonna fall. Cause when I work, everybody falls, you know, that's what we do. But I knew it was gonna fall and he didn't hurt himself, but he couldn't get up. And I went out him up, but the amount of people that walked past him it's incredible. [00:32:43] You know, be kind, it don't cost anything, you know, be kind, do good things. It's, you know, and I'll believe in karma a little bit and treat others how you'd like to be trapped or you'd like your parents to be trained. It's not hard, keep people happy. It's I dunno, I sleep better at night because I, I I try to make some try to well, it's not just me, everybody who I work We do our best and nurses, that's what we do, [00:33:11] Pia: well, the salt of the earth, and I think we have a lot to be grateful for because and I think it's, I think it's important to recognize it in advance of falling over, which is probably what we're going to do now and and get land ourselves in a and E but I, no, I think that's, I think that's really true. And I, it also, it dumbfounds me when people don't come to the help of somebody else, because that is the antithesis of a we not me moment. So [00:33:36] Andy: I'll give you a the, the reward and this is something happened to me. I was, I was actually in Harvey, Nichols in Leeds, and I was having a meeting with a fabulous designer called uh, latter. She's great. And I, we sat him in a coffee. And I could see out the corner of my eye this guy approaching. And I think she saw him as well. And I'm thinking who was this coming? Anyway, came up behind me, tapped me on the shoulder. And he went, all right. And I'd say, hello, know who he was. And he said to the, this latter that he, oh, he is great. He looked after my love this week. And then he walk, you know, stuff like that. [00:34:13] Pia: And that's um, that's the core of it actually as humans, we want to connect to get stuff done. So, you know, a huge thank you to Andy. It's been heartwarming, I think you've brought us right back to what's really important, with lots and lots of, lots of examples, and I love the humor as well. So thank you. [00:34:33] Andy: My pleasure. Absolutely [00:34:35] [00:34:35] Dan: there's so much there to talk about isn't there peer, but what he said there towards the end, sort of summed it up. Really. I like to help people. It's so simple, isn't it? That just like to help people and just occurred to me that, that sort of the heart of someone in a team or in a working in a community, you have someone who wants to have that, it's the we not me spirit, isn't it? To have that. It just struck me as being a really simple statement that drives a lot of really impressive behaviors on Andy's part, I think. [00:35:06] Pia: And he sort of painted quite a clear and stark picture. You know, the, The mopping around an individual that's lying on the, on the floor at the start and then the helping of an individual. But again, others not stepping in there, you know, that that's a pretty bad rate. If you've got three people that go past somebody or don't help to one person that does, [00:35:29] Dan: And yeah, I love that. There's the mopping around people or actually helping them up. I think that's a big choice we have in our lives. I, my, the lovely Mrs. Hammond has a theory that certainly in the UK, that the thing that English people fear the most is embarrassment. So, just the fear of embarrassment stops people helping sometimes I'm sure she's right. But either way we've gotta be, we've gotta do better than this. Haven't we see some with back, help them, [00:35:53] Pia: I mean, get over it, get over it. [00:35:55] Dan: Yet. Exactly. [00:35:56] Pia: get some help and stop being embarrassed because that person actually needs help helping up. I think that's sort of like, you know, [00:36:03] Dan: a grip. [00:36:03] Pia: I think also I was like, that Andy has that that compassion and that care, and he faces some pretty awful scenarios. it must be hard. Like he was saying, like, he'd come off a shift, and then how do you decompress? You carry scars on that. And however good you cup of tea is, it's gonna be hard to to, to come down from that and to really sort of process some of that. And when you're in the service, like the NHS for years and years that's really, that's difficult. And I think, you can tell that he values humans. [00:36:41] Dan: Genuinely. Yeah. I, that was a little bit of a phrase. Wasn't it? Horrific things happened, then it's your tea break. I thought that was sort of quite pragmatic, but say in reality, the tea isn't gonna solve it. I think we probably a lot of people out there who have a buildup of of trauma that, that they're sort of tucking away and certainly sounds like it's being dealt with a little bit better now, and you're not seen as soft if you go and ask for help around that, which is obviously [00:37:07] Pia: that was such a trade. The nineties were just a pretty tough time. We were soft or wrong, or, I mean, the embarrassment bit was that you didn't want to get it wrong in the nineties cuz it was tough. So I just feel a little bit more um, I feel happy that I think we're in a bit more enlightened, times now, but you're right. we all need a bit of Andy. [00:37:30] Dan: We do. I think everyone should be more Andy. I think that's, that's my overall summary. So take out exactly wonderful. Wonderful to talk to him. [00:37:37] But that is it for this episode. You can find show notes and resources at qaudify.net. Just click on the We Not Me podcast link. If you've enjoyed the show and I'm really sure you have please do share the love and recommend it to your friends. Also, please do give us a rating on your. Podcast platform. You can also contribute to the show by leaving us a voice note with a question or a comment. Just find the link in the show notes. We Not Me as produced by Mark Steadman of Origin FM. Thank you so much for listening. It's goodbye from me. [00:38:07] Pia: And it's goodbye for me.