More Nursing Practicals

Over the last few weeks we've had more interesting practical sessions where we covered bed making, personal care (helping to clean a patient), vital observations, injection technique and poo/urinalysis (yum!). All very 'nursey' things to learn and finally a little time out of the lecture theatres.

I swear bed making sounds easy. Our tutor is an ex-army nurse and takes hospital corners faaaar too seriously! I still have "make a triangle, fold it under and tuck" stuck in my head, which may be a good thing I suppose... I also didn't know that there were different names for the sheet 'layers'; he called them some weird name that I really can't remember cos it seems truly irrelevant really.

Personal care was a really interesting session although the tutor didn't spare any details (good thing I'm sure!). I have delivered (how detached does that sound?!) personal care in the past so have experience already although I have never done this in a hospital environment which I can imagine is slightly different given how busy it will be and the possibility of it being on a bay rather than a private room. I like that the way he described the entire process was focused on maintaining the dignity of the patient and ensuring that they retain as much independence as possible. One thing that was highlighted quite frequently was curtains are not sound proof which I'm told many healthcare professionals forget. Another thing that struck me is how operational it all seemed. All cleaning equipment is disposable to prevent cross infection. The whole help a patient to wash and change a sheet beneath them...I'm not sure how comfortable I would be in this situation... :0/

The vital observation sessions have been challenging. We've been    learning how to take manual blood pressure, temperature, capillary refill, oxygen saturation, pulse and respiratory rate and are soon to have an OSCE based around these skills (as well as communication of course!). My friends and I have been practising so we're hoping we'll cruise through it and I've been using my close ones as patients too :) I'm still absolutely terrified for this exam mind :O

Urinalysis and poo analysis were yummy as you can imagine. Again it was quite a basic session (more of an introduction to it) as I seriously couldn't just go into practice now and confidently say , "Yes, that's a 3 on the Bristol Stool Chart and that person's urine means they have XX wrong with them because they have XX in their wee!". Clearly practice makes perfect with these things. It seems pretty icky to wish for more experience with these things but I am...all part of being a nurse :)

Injection technique was an OK session...not exactly as I hoped but we learnt the basics, which I suppose is all we can hope for at this early stage. We were each given an 'arctic roll' (a rubber one, not an ice cream one) and practiced both subcutaneous (injection in fatty tissue) and intramuscular techniques (muscular tissue - deeper and more painful). I visited my first placement and my mentor told me that I will be administering subcut injections - terrifying prospect but really exciting too!

So that's a really brief overview of what we've been doing. I start placement in less than 2 weeks so will be able to (hopefully!) practice most of these things in real life.

I'll keep you posted :)

Moving House!

Gosh this has taken me an age to post. I've been a very busy bee of late as is probably obvious by the title of this post. My partner and I bit the bullet and purchased our first home together - very exciting but so, so time consuming, expensive and stressful. We moved almost 3 weeks ago and although the time has flown it's probably because we haven't stopped to notice.

It's a very humble abode - a 1 bedroom flat with a loft conversion that we've split between us - 1 side for my partner's chilling/game area/man cave, and the other half as my clothes store/study. When we first moved in it was a nightmare. We're nearly finished sorting things out but still have a few more things to collect from my Mam's house and a few bits and bobs to buy but they'll have to wait until we have more time and money. The walls were bright blue and green which is definitely not us. I think sitting in rooms that bright would give me a migraine. So now we've nicely toned it down and personalised it in our own little budgety way. Luckily for me by BF is a rather talented artist and so painted some designs on the walls to jazz it up a bit. I hate that I'm not arty, but I've always been able to picture what I want so it's great having someone who can translate that and actually paint it for me :) So, here is what he did:


This is at the top of the stairs. We are thinking of making it into a "coat tree" for guests' jackets. He continued it into the passage/hall with birds above the bedroom and bathroom door and one flying away:

This is in our bedroom above the bed. I love oriental flowers :)

After living in a rented flat and not being able to decorate how we wanted we thought we'd go all out. Plus my BF's always wanted to draw on walls and thoroughly enjoyed the rebellious feeling :) 

I've also started being a little bit creative with a needle and thread. I made some cushions for our living room...well I made 2 and I've had no time to make any more but I will. Here's 1 of them:

Very excited to have my own space to enjoy and concentrate on my studies :)