Recruits driving me mad!

[Silvester]

We get a lot of CMT recruits sent to our med centre on placement. Some are really good, keen to get stuck in and ask sensible questions and generally make you think there is hope for the RAMC yet. Sadly they are becoming very much the minority. Recently we RTU'd one recruit who just couldn't be bothered to come into work for two days and then this little scene occurred this morning:

Medic Cpl: "Right Pte X the next patient that we are seeing needs his bloods taken. Your saw me do it with the last one, this time I'll talk you through it."

Pte X (with arms crossed and sulky look on face): "I'm not taking blood"

Cpl: "Why not?"

Pte X: "Don't want to"

Cpl: "Right lets get two things clear. Firstly you need to take blood whilst here on placement, it is one of the tasks you have to achieve. Secondly, I'm not asking I'm telling you what you will be doing."

Pte X: " You can't tell me what to do"

At this point the nurse stepped in and a little chat about attitude was commenced.


I know I've moaned about this before but it just depresses me that new recruits to the RAMC seem to not only lack the enthusiasm you would expect but also have an attitude to boot. Is this just representative of the army as a whole or a problem with the Med Corp. For me part of the problem must surely be the fact that recruits no longer do basic training as an AMS platoon with AMS instructors where Corp pride was instilled from day one. Also I would like to think the instructors at Keogh (particualarly on Common Core) are not only entusiatic but amongst the best the AMS has to offer. When I went through common core (No13) I thought most of the instructors were pretty good and knowledable and I really enjoyed my Med Centre placement as a consequence.

Where are we going wrong?

 

[Filbert Fox]

no beastings in basic training?

 

[Silvester]

Beastings, the last I was told, those at winchester could go out every Fri and Sat night and even have a lie in until midday on Sundays. What happened to breakfast being a parade! As for duvets instead of itchy blankets...gggrrr...

 

[BiGbAddAbOOm]

I expect a high level of your recruits do not want to be a medic, I bet if you were a fly on the wall when they were offered their choice of regiment or trade etc, medic was next to or last on their list, no glamour etc.

I do not know how the new system of recruitment and training/selection works but at least when I went through training everyone in my troop wanted to be there and worked hard to pass out, my troop started with 80 people and we passed out as a squad of 32 trade trained and ready to go to a unit to begin the real process of learing to be a soldier.

J

 

[Cutaway]

If the little sh1t won't take blood, show him the place round the back of the block where he can give some.

 

[Silvester]

Unfortuantely the little sh1t was a she!

 

[polar]

Unfortuantely the little sh1t was a she!

Thats not very PC of u is it, in these modern PC times sex shouldn't matter when ur taking them around the bloke.

Equal Ops for all

 

[Filbert Fox]

I expect a high level of your recruits do not want to be a medic, I bet if you were a fly on the wall when they were offered their choice of regiment or trade etc, medic was next to or last on their list, no glamour etc.

I dont know if you are aware, but the British Army of today is a voluntary one, and you get to choose which regt or corps you wish to join.
Gone are the days of National Service where youd stand in a line and be told which capbadge you were to join.
so the chances of these people getting a high enough BARB test score and choosing the RAMC but not actually wanting to be medics are virtually nil.

 

[223335spog]

Its wrong, why do these people want to join the army in the first place?. Keogh is like some sort of youth club these days, the recruits walk around basically doing as they please daring a S/JNCO to pick them up. At the first sign of a bit of discipline they raise the bullying issue, and the Army are so afraid after the events at Deepcut that they are taken in. These people then turn up at units with the same attitude and it is so difficult to get them to work. I not asking for recruits to be beaten up or punished without cause, this has always been wrong, just not policed. What we want is a disiplined young soldier who when your back is turned you can trust to get on with the job that is given.

 

[Filbert Fox]

thats what the beastings and quick change parades did.

 

[maninblack]

Unfortuantely the little sh1t was a she!

What a suprise.

Can she pass a fitness test as well?


At the risk of sounding like an old Daily Mail reading fart the basic training regime at places like Keogh where us oldies trained was a product of an age when the Army could pick and choose those who served. If you didn’t want it, you went, if they didn’t want you, you went. The nice thing was that the depots had recruits who had moved heaven and earth to get that far, competition was stiff and the majority came from families with brothers in the forces and fathers who had done National Service. One lad in basic with me had a father who had served in Burma in the second world war.

Sadly we now have a regime where targets matter. In the early 1980s a squad of 40 knackers delivered to Keogh would have produced 40 railway warrants and a matching number of empty beds if they were not up to scratch. Now the training centres have to justify every waster removed from the system just as the recruiting offices have to produce a number of bodies regardless of suitability.

We have a society that tells soldiers not to wear their uniform in the street as if it were something shameful. Young men never see soldiers; therefore they have no military role to aspire to. They are told that competitive games are bad and exclude the “differently abled” so the kids at school don’t even play football anymore. Everyone is special, especially the “special” who must be given every opportunity to be whatever they dream in spite of a lack of ability.

The result is that work-shy, bolshy little tart that you have just had in your med centre.

 

[Filbert Fox]

well said

 

[commander]

I expect a high level of your recruits do not want to be a medic, I bet if you were a fly on the wall when they were offered their choice of regiment or trade etc, medic was next to or last on their list, no glamour etc.

I dont know if you are aware, but the British Army of today is a voluntary one, and you get to choose which regt or corps you wish to join.
Gone are the days of National Service where youd stand in a line and be told which capbadge you were to join.
so the chances of these people getting a high enough BARB test score and choosing the RAMC but not actually wanting to be medics are virtually nil.

Funny that when I joined up I was recruited for a RAC Regiment of my choice then one day around 30 of us were marched in to the Adjutant and told "we are re badging you as your Regiments are over recruited, you can of course appeal but it will do you no good" Later on at APSC I saw aplicant come with their choice in their head and leave having been told what they could join. Mostly because they were not up to the level required for their choice, i.e I want to be a Para" weighs 20 stone and unfit as fuc+

 

[Filbert Fox]

so the chances of these people getting a high enough BARB test score and choosing the RAMC but not actually wanting to be medics are virtually nil

Later on at APSC I saw aplicant come with their choice in their head and leave having been told what they could join. Mostly because they were not up to the level required for their choice, i.e I want to be a Para" weighs 20 stone and unfit as fuc+

so the chances of these people getting a high enough BARB test score and choosing the RAMC but not actually wanting to be medics are virtually nil

in most cases the entance critia for the RAMC is to be 20 Stone and unfit as fcuk!!

 

[charliecharlieone]

Is She a British national or Commonwealth?

 

[charliecharlieone]

Is She a British national or Commonwealth?

 

[Rapierman]

It is mad, its the stock they come from tho, recently went to my young fellas sports day, it was all team stuff., no bad thing I agree in some respects, however there was no scope for individual achievement. Not that laddo is a budding steve cram but I was annoyed that individual merit is discouraged and frowned upon as being non productive.
I consulted my wife who is at the same school as a teacher and she said that their hands were tied by ......da dah "policy" and this was the way they had to do it, no matter whether the teachers or school are against it or not.
This is not only confided into "physical" activities though as excellence in academia is also hampered, said clever sh!t son is also smarter than the average bear having a reading age of 13, he is 8, he gets half an hour a week with a CSA to help push him, while there is a massive network of resources for the woodentops! Not saying this is wrong totally, those that are under achieving need help, however those that do well surely need some assistance to also "do better" . The system doesn't change at secondary school either so at 16 all we end up with in the forces is "just done enough" or "adequate" people as the education sytem has no capability or where withall to deal with the brighter child.

 

[medman82]

I hate to be the pragmatic one in the room....however..

These useless individuals that we frequently refer to, will soon be the same useles individuals who reach senior and warrant rank and god forbid it, commissioned. I dread to think of what state that the AMS or land Army will be in at that stage. Leaders who can't or won't lead and troops who can't or won't follow.

Once again I have to say how thankful I am to have left. The best fighting force in the world is dying a death that cannot be resurrected. Or as the great scot said....a meringue

AMEN

 

[Ranger_Danger]

MT Sheds, back of, education.

 

[medman82]

As a second episode, I have to pass comment on the trainers at Keogh . I was extremely fortunate to be very good friends with the SNCO in charge of the placement cell at Keogh, we used to regularly discuss the low standards that CMT trainees had, but we both knew that it wasn't the fault of any instructor (said confidently) but the fault of the current trend of the "soft recruiting and training policy". As a SNCO I served at two recruit training establishments and the level of discipline was abysmal. The Instructors were, however, powerless to effect any improvement for risk of harrassment allegations, which in most cases supported the recruit and suspended the instructor.
The powers that be have made the bed, now they must sleep in it.

retention my arrse.

I remain sir

Bitter and twisted