By Fraser Ferguson (@FraserAHP)
January is the time for making resolutions.The list above is not all mine. One of my resolutions was to write more blogs for AHPScot Blog and support all the amazing bloggers who annually take the time and effort to produce a high quality tale to share. Rather than just sit back and luxuriate in the wonderful stats the blogs get, why not step forward and write one myself? If noting else it would help to fill the historically quiet spell for blog submissions that generally follows the start of the year; probably due to AHPs in Scotland being too busy working their way through lists like that above.
I have spent a lot of time procrastinating about what to write. Which one of the many great projects I know of, should I write about? Which of the many amazing AHP colleagues I work with should I mention in the blog? The more effort I put into thinking what I should blog about, the further away I actually got from producing anything that would be a coherent tale of something AHP focused. This fact reminded me of my oldest son, who in December spent every night for three weeks writing his ‘statement of support’ for his university application. At the time I tried to point out to him that pro rata he had probably worked longer and harder on that statement than he would during his whole four year course! As they say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Evidently this also applied to me; I had procrastinated so much about what to write that I had wasted more time and effort than I would have just sitting down and writing.
But still the procrastinating continued. What had I done which demonstrated an interesting and impactful piece of work that was worthy of sharing on AHPScot blog?
It eventually became apparent to me that the best thing I could blog about at this time, which showed the strengths, the skills and depth of knowledge, was AHPScot blog itself. It truly is a cornucopia of everything good about AHPs. AHPScot Blog has been around since April 2014 and is now positioned as the main source of blogging and sharing good practice with the AHP Community in Health and Social Care in Scotland.
At the end of 2015 a blog smashed all AHPScot Blog records. Readers from all of the world – and I don’t use that term loosely – flocked to the site to read….
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good AHP in a weary world.
Not only did this blog present to us the astounding role that each of our individual AHP Professions play in patient care but it wasn’t even written by ‘one of our own’ so to speak, it was writen Scotland’s Chief Nursing Officer Fiona McQueen 
It went to show that not only has AHPScot Blog grown, so to has the allied health professions as other professions appreciate and acknowledge our individual and combined inter and intra professional roles.
And, it’s not just that other professions recognised our impact; more and more people are coming to read AHPScot Blog to hear about the breadth and depth of our roles.
Just this week AHPScot Blog had it’s 10,000 visitor. A huge milestone for the blog – but in the context of the world’s top visited blogs it still has a way to go….
But to put it into cotext, before April 2014 where were AHPS in Scotland able to share and comment on the work we currently do, the work we have done and the work we aspire to do? In my procrastination phase I looked at the breadth and depth of the blogs AHPscot has published over the last 18 months. From Dietetics to Dementia, from Macmillan cancer care to care of the elderly. Blogs by new grads. Blogs by under grads. Blogs by world leaders in their field, and blogs by AHPs who just want to share their practice and showcase the impact they have made and will continue to make in Scotland. Blogs from Scotland and blogs from further afield. Even heads of AHP Professional Bodies took the time to write for the blog.
These blogs are not all painting a rose tinted glasses view of AHP roles in Scotland. These blogs are honest, thought provoking and some will challenge our AHP comfort zones. Even in the record breaking blog [AHPScot – not Huffington Post standards!] Fiona McQueen challenges us to prove “in every health board area, can AHPs truly say they are working as well as they can together?” AHPs have always loved a challenge and will work hard at answering that question. But AHPScot Blog had provided a platform from which we can discuss these issues widely and deeply.
So procrastinate no longer like I have done. Join AHPScot blog. Share you successes, your goals and dreams – ideally AHP related but not bound too strictly to that ideal.
The less you procrastinate the more I can.
AHPs across health and social care. 