The blog of Kerry Stott

Sometimes we just have to hear the words "I'm sorry". Sometimes there is not other phrase that will do, those are the only words that will cut it.

I have just has to say sorry in a professional capacity. I know that as a patient I would want to hear if a member of my health care team got it wrong. I would want to hear an admission of error. Or, heaven forbid, that they had actually got it wrong and made a mistake.

I don't like eating humble pie, I don't think anyone does. Whilst I like...

It is something that I have been saying a lot recently. I repeat this tiny work over and over again. Sometimes to colleagues but mostly to clients or patients. It made me reflect as to why I say it so much.

I am reminded of a time when I was on holiday in Spain and I say a toddler try and get at the soft drinks in one of the massive fridges that was at the cafe. I saw the child's mother hold the door shut and tell him or her that it was locked and that they couldn't get it open....

It is a funny old thing this life malarkey. There are some things we have control over and others that we don't. Sometimes there are people who change things around unrecognisably: some in a positive way and some not.

I shall let you into a secret. On Tuesday the 11th December 2012 I was cancer free for 5 years. Now before you go and start cheering (yes, you at the back, I am talking to you too!) this is not a day for celebration. Ever since I was told that I don't have cancer any...

Already I have patient's on my caseload worrying about Christmas, and quite rightly. Christmas is a very stressful time of year. There is a social expectation that we all love Christmas and that we all have happy families to go to and be with. There is a dream, also known as the Christmas lie, that there will be no money worries, no arguments with our spouses, that Great Uncle Fred will not try and feel up your wife, that Grandma for once in her life will not be an utter bitch, that the...

The Sound of Silence, a top tune in my opinion but silence is such a powerful thing. I was reminded of someone who was unable to talk to me, or any other mental health professional. You could see it in their face that they wanted to say something but it clogged, quite literally, in their throat. This got me thinking about the different ways that silence can be used.

I am a chatty kind of soul and it surprises my friends that I use silence therapeutically. I sit there and say nothing...

I don't know the words to the 'Time to Say Goodbye' sung by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman. In this technical age I'm sure that with a touch of a button I could find out but I don't want to. It is a beautiful piece of music and it resonates with my heart strings. It just seems complete and perfect and if I understood what they were singing I think that it would lose some of it's magic for me.

I always tell my patients that I will discharge them. That I will say goodbye. I tell...

I have thought long and hard about putting an entry into Sinful Sunday. I have long been an avid admirer of all things erotica but putting pics of my naked bod on the internet is not really 'me'. However, it is Breast Cancer Awareness month and I wanted to make my contribution. I fear that it is not very sinful but it does have a message.

Having decided on the image I came across this website (The SCAR Project) and I was very moved by the images of the women. It was the oddest thing...

Whenever I go to hospital, which is frequently since my work is based in one and I am forever going for some kind of cancer check up, I see lots of thank you cards to the nursing staff. It occurred to me that I only have a couple thank you cards for all my time in nursing. No I did not mean for you to have some kind of collective 'aaawwwwww' and rush out and buy me one. There must be a reason; so I had a bit of a ponder about it.

General nurses can be very task orientated. It is easy for...