Wellbeing in EM – Five Minutes from Car Park Five

If the general public were asked what subject causes the most “reply all” email traffic for hospital consultants I am sure they would come up with an admirable list: healing the sick; pleading for better facilities; organising teaching for medical students, but I’m afraid the truth is much more mundane and rather disappointing. The subject that fills many in boxes is…….

Car Park
from the Daily Echo (Southampton)

….. car parking.

We had a flurry of these emails at my outpost of Vichester recently, and whilst not getting heavily involved, it did, to my chagrin, mean a change of car park venue to “Car Park 5”, some 5 minutes walk from the ED.

At first this was a cause for consternation, but now I have found an upside, as this walk allows almost exactly the right time to listen to a single music track, and over past months I have honed my choice to mean I am in exactly the right mood for work as I stride (rhythmically and smiling) through the doors. I present for you my top five choices below and guarantee that the presence of these on your generic MP3 device will give those tricky first few moments as you walk through the crowded corridors a lift (and perhaps even improve patient care and your relationships with colleagues).

All suggestions to add to the list are most welcome and will be added to the “Car Park Five” playlist on Spotify. The only entry criteria are that it needs to be less than five minutes long and leave you smiling as you put down your bag and hit the ED shopfloor. All songs should be played at high volume through earphones!

1, Nina Simone – Feeling Good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5Y11hwjMNs

A classic tune, which although not upbeat cannot help but make you feel good and appreciate the world around you.

2, Craig Robinson – Let’s Get It Started

Originally by the Black Eyed Peas (seen in the link above) I first came across this in the classic movie “Hot Tub Time Machine” (which surely must rival Liz Crowe’s favourite “Blades of Glory” for ridiculous giggles). My current CPW (Car Park Walk) favourite I defy anyone to not dance past the waiting trolleys of the sick after listening to this.

3, McFly – Star Girl

Every list like this needs a boyband and great British heartthrobs “McFly” join mine. If only so you can childishly giggle when they sing “Hey, there’s nothing on Earth that could save us, when I fell in love with Uranus”

4, Michael Bublé – It’s A Beautiful Day

A tongue in cheek song from Canadian Crooner Buble about a man who faces a difficult situation with bravery, a smile and a catchy tune. Sound familiar?

5, Pharrell Williams – Happy

Although perhaps suffering a bit from radio overplay this song cannot help but make you feel, well, happy.

I hope this short list does a little bit to help your shifts start on the right foot. Coming soon a few suggestions for the wind down wander after a day (or night’s) work.

Iain Beardsell (docib)

 

Cite this article as: Iain Beardsell, "Wellbeing in EM – Five Minutes from Car Park Five," in St.Emlyn's, June 6, 2014, https://www.stemlynsblog.org/car-park-five/.

7 thoughts on “Wellbeing in EM – Five Minutes from Car Park Five”

  1. Thanks a lot, Iain – I bet this is something that most doctors can relate to! However, I had no idea that my colleagues at St. Emlyn’s were quite so cheesy. 🙂 Of course, I’m only kidding. I knew it all along really.

    I have to say that my personal favourite car park song of all time is probably Bring it on Down by Oasis.

    https://play.spotify.com/track/5gs2Xgb0pI2B0tZT0JugJ1?play=true&utm_source=open.spotify.com&utm_medium=open

    No surprise there, I guess, being a Manchester lad.

    It’s become a bit of a habit of mine to turn the volume down as I arrive for fear of seeming unprofessional having music blaring out in a hospital car park. 🙂

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Thanks so much for following. Viva la #FOAMed

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