What have I been up to…

And just like that, my Level 4 Diploma is (hopefully) complete and I patiently await the news of whether I have passed. This began at the start of 2022 and it has not been the easiest of qualifications to try and navigate while weaving around other areas of my life and work. I do not yet feel that sense of accomplishment that I should, but it will come I’m sure. In the meantime, well it is surely about time I got back to writing for fun and for my own selfish interests as opposed to things I simply have to, right? That being said, it’s not as though I haven’t had some cheeky little diversions away from my coursework, and do I have the solid basis of two chapters of some kind of book sitting in my drafts. I felt guilty having written those while really needing to be writing first hand accounts of work to prove that I was competent but I couldn’t help myself when inspiration struck. When I have an idea, it grows and develops slowly even if I don’t realise or mean it to.

Also during this time I have been working on a small side project with Dr Imogen Jones. I met Imogen in the ‘before times’ when she was conducting her research on documenting the viewpoints and interests of APTs. I walked out of the room after speaking with her in a cloud of thoughts that I’m not sure I have ever been able to shift. I clearly remember stating that sometimes when I play music I wonder if the deceased would mind, perhaps maybe even hate that music artist. Imogen looked at me and asked ‘why does that matter?’ and I genuinely had too many thoughts to try put into words. Imogen’s blog Dead Bodies and the Law is certainly to be of interest if you like my writing and if you head over there you will see two posts which I co-wrote with Imogen.

The first blog post we wrote together was Viewability Part 2: Dignity as a determinant of treatment and local practice? which followed an original Viewability Part 1 post by Imogen reacting to a series of legal cases which had arisen around deceased being unviewable and therefore the family wishing to claim compensation and find out why this happened. As with many things, examining these legal cases does raise more issues than it would originally appear, and in the two parts following we have examined some of the other factors involved. It is not as clear cut as the NHS Trust or mortuary being at fault in their procedures. 

I don’t want to delve into this matter further here, merely signpost these pieces of writing. Please do have a read of Imogen’s blog and the three part series on viewability. I would love to hear if you have any thoughts or ideas around this complex subject. While viewings are of such huge importance, and the pandemic certainly raised this urgently, I do think that the practicality and issue of ‘viewability’ is a hugely relevant topic that more should be aware of. 

MG x