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| SimSig is excellent training for real life. 08/02/2013 at 14:09 #41312 | |
DonRiver
151 posts |
What I love about SimSig - apart from the role-playing-game aspect of pretending to be a signaller - is the mental exercise. It's all about keeping track (pun!) of dozens of things at once - mostly the positions and progression of trains, the statuses of level crossings, the many schedules, the traffic flows of the location - you have to keep all these things in your head at once, and if you forget something, you'll get an embarrassing phone call. Also you have to master so many complex rules about British railway signalling, and the implications of running foul of them, like the Adverse Change Of Aspect Time Loss Doom Spiral. All while constantly being interrupted by phone calls and a stream of messages, some of which need to be acted on and others ignored. So when I started working yesterday as a ward clerk in a 32-bed hospital ward, I was well prepared! Being a ward clerk is basically about managing information. Most of it written on paper by clinicians, and 'managed' by precise insertion into a succession of files according to a complex set of rules. But also multiple concurrent enquiries, mostly over the telephone. As in SimSig it helps to constantly be scrawling on a piece of paper to keep track of everything that's going on. Trying to cope with three patients leaving almost simultaneously, making sure their departures are logged and filed correctly, the right people notified at the right times that the next set of patients can move into those beds, while also dealing with cryptic phone calls from other departments and patient relatives, chasing up delayed paperwork from the doctors, then being caught unexpected by a routine enquiry about menu variations - all had a SimSig-esque feel to it in the end. Partly because due to a scheduling mishap the experienced ward clerk who was training me finished (and left) an hour before I did, leaving me at the deep end... Also, the patient administration software is not very far removed from the SimSig timetable editor ;) Thanks, Geoff et al, for providing an excellent brain gym! Thanks to SimSig, I'll be more capable at my job. (named for the one in Tasmania, not in Russia) Log in to reply The following users said thank you: GeoffM, Josie |
| SimSig is excellent training for real life. 08/02/2013 at 18:10 #41320 | |
Josie
310 posts |
" said:Adverse Change Of Aspect Time Loss Doom SpiralAren't they playing at the O2 this year? ;) Seriously, you're quite right. That's one of the main appeals for me - it's excellent mental exercise which can be dipped in and out of quite easily. Log in to reply |