A Long Overdue Catch-up

Well...I hang my head in shame since it's been around 7 months since I last posted but I have had a tonne going on, and still have really so this will be very brief.

I'm currently on my second placement of second year in the biggest hospital in the area. I'm based on an outpatients department that specialises in plastics so it's absolutely fascinating! I'm loving the experience but not so much the travel and parking situation. I'll (hopefully!) write a more in depth post about the placement soon. My last placement was with the District Nurses, which I enjoyed but I'm not sure it's for me. I think I'm more of a 'hospital nurse'.

I've handed in an essay and completed a VIVA (spoken exam) and an anatomy and physiology exam. I managed to get 82% for my VIVA which I was over the moon with, especially given the circumstance of what's been happening recently. I'm waiting for the results for the other 2 which we should have in the next month.

So the reason (other than being manically busy) that I haven't posted in a while is because...I'm pregnant. We're expecting a baby boy on 10th December, in 3 short months. It has absolutely flown over so far and trying to balance everything has been a bit of a challenge to say the least. I can imagine the next few months will pose the most challenges but I'm ready to face them head on :) I know it's going to be difficult to complete my training with a young child at home but I'm going to do my very best. I intend on stepping off just before he's due, taking 6 months out and then going back in the Summer to complete second year and then straight on into third year. It makes me tired just thinking about it!

Unfortunately my partner's Nana, who brought him up also passed away recently so it's been difficult moving on from that, especially with us expecting our first child. I'm sure she's watching over our growing baby.

I'll try and post again soon. Hope everyone is well :)

A lot going on...a quick update about life, OSCE, essay and placement

Well the last month has been rather crazy to say the least. I started to feel really poorly a few weeks ago - migraine, nausea, fever, exhaustion/insomnia...awful! After 4 days I went to visit the local walk-in centre who did a full set of obs and decided to send me off to A&E to get some blood tests as they didn't have the facilities and he was worried about my persistent fever and migraine. I waited for several hours at A&E (as is obvious!) to be told that I should take time out of university to recover and to stay away from work/uni/as many people as possible as they suspected I had Glandular Fever. ARGH! I waited (impatiently!) for my blood test results which thankfully came back negative for GF - turns out I just had an awful viral infection which took over 2 weeks to clear up.

Any way the reason I'm mentioning all of this is that it's caused me no end of hell due to the recent workload I've had but has taught me an awful lot about how things can build up and fall on you. I had an OSCE exam, an essay and placement prep to complete, all of which had to be put on hold whilst I recovered and waited for test results. I missed my OSCE and had to get an extension to finish my essay (boohoo!). I think the OSCE will now be in September so at least I have plenty of time to practice these skills prior to it and a 2 week extension for my essay. Of course that's helpful but I start placement tomorrow and now have to write this at the same time...oh dear. Best to get used to it now I suppose - lots of multitasking practice.

So on a MASSIVELY exciting note, I START PLACEMENT TOMORROW! TOMORROW!! I am ever so slightly excited right now and am writing as a way to get some of my excitement out so that I may get some sleep tonight and be fresh for tomorrow. I have a lovely 50 mile journey and won't be home until after 10pm so I'm straight in at the deep end. What an introduction to being a nurse?! Ha! Today we had our Trust induction where we covered mandatory training and received information about what we can expect and what is expected of us. We also received our Trust IDs. I took my (posed) preprepared photo with me (post photoshop) only to find out that they were taking our photographs anyway and our other photos were to be shoved in a file :(  So my ID photo is terrible and I look constipated and awkward, hahaha! Never mind, I'm hoping I can get a new picture taken if I decide to change my hair colour or something.

Any way, my uniform is ironed and packed, my paperwork is packed, as is my lunch, my fob, badges and my notebook and black pen, now I just have to get to bed. On that note - good night. I'll report back soon, if I have time to breathe of course :)

A Day at University!

Monday 11th December - a day at university to find out more about the course and meet my fellow nursey folk...EXCITING! Apologies in advance that this is a little all over the place. The day was a blur and went so quickly...besides the fact that I'm recounting from well over a week ago and my memory never serves me well.

The day began with a little meet-up with a few other student nurses...it turned out to be around 10 of us. We had already spoken via a social networking site but it was brilliant to be able to put names to faces. We then travelled to uni, skidding all the way due to the wintery conditions, where we gathered and chatted nervously about what we might find out/do.

First we listened to a presentation on practice placements - where they might be, length of time, health trust areas and how we choose, mentors, etc.

We then got to meet the course leader who is AMAZING! She literally lit up the room when she spoke :) I love it when lecturers are passionate about what they do and how they teach, it makes soooo much difference. She spoke to us about the time we'll be spending in university. We found out that the entire course had changed in the September and that we were the second cohort to experience the new curriculum and structure. It includes a different placement structure, a longer period at uni for the first part of the course, as well as different assessments, including OSCEs and an Anatomy and Physiology exam - eek! It all sounds very exciting though! We were told that this university is the first and only to be awarded accreditation from the NMC - WOW! Proud to be a student nurse here :)

Then we heard from some current students ranging from year 1-3, from all different nursing fields. They (obviously!) have a wealth of knowledge. I just wanted to sit and chat with them all day. The information they gave us was absolutely invaluable. I can't believe that I could be doing that this time next year!

Finally we had to do all of the organisational things - CRB and information on bursary applications. We completed our CRB checks and I literally received mine in the post 5 days later - super quick! I've been trying to do the bursary application for ages and it's giving me such a headache! I can't understand why the form is like 40 pages long. Who designed it?! Crazy people :0p

Oh well, I'm off to battle with the dreaded form again. Hope you're all well!! :)