A Fascinating Day

Today has been a long, but very enjoyable day, I only got home a couple of hours ago. I will keep this post rather brief though as I am very tired now and my bed is calling. =)

I had two clinical skills sessions and they were brilliant. The first one we had was 'Personal Care & Hygiene'; this session contained 4 different stations where we had to (1) Take care of a baby (a doll which weighed the same as a normal baby) by giving it a bath, change it's nappy, dress it, etc, which brought back a lot of memories for me, haha! (2) Learn the correct hand washing technique and also brush eachothers teeth... yes, we really did! We had to interact with our partner as though they were a child. It was quite fun. (3) Remake a hospital bed with the patient (a child mannequin) still in the bed, and learn how to do 'hospital corners', that was fun to learn. (4) Give a child mannequin a bed bath. I had a lot of fun in this session and feel a lot more confident after learning all the correct techniques.

SimBaby:
Image taken from Google

Our second session was 'Patient Assessment & Vital Signs'. In this session we learnt all about pulses, taking blood pressure, temperature and what to look for in a baby who is experiencing respiratory distress. Our uni, like many others, has what is called a 'SimBaby' its a simulation baby that is hooked up to an ECG monitor and is capable of 'breathing' so we can monitor it's pulse and respiratory rate. It also makes noises and cries. It's an amazing piece of equipment. I am sure those of you doing adult nursing have something similar. We also got shown how to fill in observation sheets correctly which has put my mind at ease.

I have also found out where I am going on placement. Due to the NMC Code on confidentiality I cannot divulge where I am going, I can say, however, that I will seeing patients with respiratory, neurological and gastrointestinal conditions, I have already started studying things that I may come across in order to get a better understanding. Once again, in order to maintain confidentiality at all times I must stress that I will at no point be discussing specifics with regards to where I am, patients or their conditions. I am really excited about learning from this placement and I cannot wait to get out there and start interacting with people. I visit my placement this week and meet with my mentor to have a look around and collect my shift times, I can't wait! I also collect my uniform next Tuesday which is really exciting.

My attitude is very positive now, I had been experiencing a slight blip over the past couple of days. To any person reading this who wants to be a student nurse, I must warn you now that you may experience several blips at the beginning of the course, but I assure you these will subside with time. Always remember why you're doing the course and look ahead to where you might be. I am so proud to be a student nurse, I won't let anyone or anything dampen my determination.

I have so much coming up so I will post again as soon as I can. Hope you are all well. =)

The Hard Work Starts Now

I thought I'd post another entry as I've been asked my a few people when my next one is going to be. I can only apologise that I'm not posting as often as I originally thought I would be. My fellow student nurses will agree that before long university life slowly begins to take over and you find yourself with less and less free time, and in my personal opinion that's not a bad thing. I'm enjoying getting my teeth stuck into the challenge.

After the recent lecture we had I am even more determined to work hard. We had a lecture on the different ways in which we'll be assessed throughout the course, the pass marks required to pass each year, how many chances we get, and the consequences of failing. It really brought it home just how hard we need to work. I'll give you a brief overview of how it works at my uni, it may be similar for you, I don't know lol. In terms of academic work, we get 4 opportunities to pass, however, we've been told we get 2 chances in semester 1, and 1 chances in semester 2. If we don't pass after those chances, we have to step off the course for up to 6 months and rejoin with the new cohort for our final chance. If we fail then, we have to step off the course. We also have 2 chances to pass practice placement, if we fail both times, we step off the course, and they emphasised that even if we get to our last placement of year 3 and we've been excellent throughout the course both in academic work and on placement, if we fail that final placement, we're off the course with no exceptions and we'll only get a CertHE. It's brutal. I would be devastated if I got that far and then failed. Fingers crossed it never comes to that. However, despite how tough it sounds, I guess there's a reason for it. For my fellow student nurses, how does it work at your uni. I'd be interested in seeing a post from you explaining it.

On a more happy note, it was my birthday on Wednesday, haha. I had a brilliant day. I had my kids stay over on the Tuesday so I could take them to school, and then I picked them up again and spent some time with them. It was a great day. I didn't do anything that exciting, like go out drinking. I know, sounds a bit boring, but I'm actually not much of a drinker. I'd pick a night in on the sofa every time. There's nothing better than the creature comforts of home, haha.

I hope everyone is doing well, and you're all settling in OK. =)