Quick Update

Hi guys,

It's been an awfully long time since I updated this blog and to be honest I have no excuse as I've been off uni and placement for several weeks now. I've just enjoyed the breathing space and time with family and friends.

Quick update about the kitten we got a couple of months ago. Millie was a little poorly a few weeks ago so we took her to the vet. The vet thoroughly examined her and there was nothing major wrong. However what we thought was a lovely little girl kitten is actually a little boy, haha! So we have amended HIS name to Milo, slightly more appropriate than Millie don't you think? :)

Other life/uni updates:

I received my first graded assignment back recently and managed to scoop a 1st which I was obviously over the moon with.

I also applied for a Bank HCA role and have an interview soon. Excited!

I go back to placement on 2nd September for 4 weeks in my second Hub placement. Then straight after this I go to my spoke placements - 2 weeks in a mental health placement and 2 weeks on a health visiting placement which I'm massively excited about.

I've been collating and writing up as much evidence as possible for my practice assessment document (PAD - what a name!) and preparing for going back to placement.

I've been a bit unhappy with the format and layout of my blog so am going to redesign it soon with the help of my arty BF. Look at his latest painting - it's fabulous :)

Other than that I will write a post about my first placement as soon as possible but I am preparing to go on holiday - a lovely little boating holiday with my immediate family and boyfriend to the Norfolk Broads which I'm very excited about. It will be my Mam's first holiday since 2001 so I think it's well overdue.

Anyhoo, I'll post soon. Hope everyone in Nursing world is well and of course any other curious folk who read my rambles :)

Staying Balanced & Healthy, both Physically & Emotionally

It is so  important to maintain who you are whilst doing something very stressful so that you can retain some balance in your life. In fact one of the biggest pieces of advice I've been given for starting this course is to try my best to make time for myself and the things I enjoy. The way I intend to do this throughout my time at university is to keep up my hobbies and make damn sure I do. I always tend to get lost in what I'm doing but this time I've promised myself that it'll be different. My current front runner hobbies are playing with make-up, reading books and exercising regularly. Perhaps a touch of meeting friends and consuming a lil bit of my old mate Rosè wine and Bournville choccy :) I WILL keep this up, I will! (Perhaps just the wine and choc :0p)

I'll keep you posted on my success levels :0/

Books I'm reading before I start

Well, as I have previously said (I think...), I'm a mature student and so I haven't studied or looked at science for a wee while...8 years to be exact, eek! So before I start the course (and make a bit of a fool of myself) I am aiming to learn as much anatomy and physiology as possible and to do that I have recently purchased the Ross and Wilson books. I've heard/read a lot about these books and was very intrigued by them. I must say, what people say is true - they are fab! So detailed, great pictures/diagrams plus the added bonus of giving you access to some online content via a code in the front cover of the text book. I also purchased the colouring and work book which is very good. There are so many different interesting tasks to complete which help to shape your learning and prevent it from becoming as monotonous as it could. So far I haven't done anything too strenuous - a little bit of how the body is made up and some processes. I surprised myself a little with what I have retained from school...then I went a little further into the book and discovered that was the extent of my knowledge, ha! Oh, well, I suppose I can only get better.

A friend of mine, who is now a qualified midwife, gave me a thing called "The Visible Man". It's a model of the human body that you have to put together, including bones, muscles and organs. It looks pretty complicated so I think I'll do a bit more reading and revising before I tackle that!

Aside from A&P (Anatomy & Physiology), I've been flicking through some other books that I'll list below:

The Student Nurse Handbook (2nd Edition) by Bethann Siviter. So many students have raved about this book and I definitely support their raves. This book is so helpful. Before purchasing it I had so many questions and this book more or less answers them all...except for University and course specific ones obviously. Other than the fact that it's helpful, this book is also making me more excited to start the course. Only 4 months to go! Anyway, I would definitely recommend student nurses purchasing this one :)

The Royal Marsden Hospital Manual of Clinical Procedures (Student Edition - 8th Edition) by Lisa Dougherty and Sara Lister. This book has also been highly complimented by the nursing and nursing student world. It is sooooo heavy and literally has everything in it. Just like the A&P books I mentioned earlier, there are also online resources to go with this book, which admittedly I haven't used yet. When I do, I'll update :) As for the detail in the book, it's very good. Everything is written so that it's easier to understand, with diagrams, step by step guides and quite simplistic language. There's also a handy list of abbreviations and their meanings at the front of the book - excellent given that I have absolutely no idea what all of these daft letters mean!

That's all of the books I have at the moment, and honestly I don't think I'll be purchasing many more. I'll probably be getting a book about calculations and drugs later on when I can actually understand some of what they are referring to. Let's not push ourselves too hard before we start sorta thing ;) My University has an excellent library and given that I've studied before, I have learnt not to make the fatal error of paying £££s for books that you may never use or use very sparingly. I think the best idea is to see which books you use the most and find the most helpful over the course of the 1st year and purchase them as you go. At least that's what I'm telling myself now.

Well, until next time, TTFN!

Preparation is Everything!

Since I've got such a long wait before I start the course in March, I figured I'd use the time wisely. I've been doing a few things to help me understand the things that I'm going to face over the next 3 years:

Vlogs/blogs: I LOVE reading blogs or watching vlogs about other nursing students' experiences, which is partially why I made this blog really. It's so interesting knowing how other people prepared, learning what I may come up against, what I might see on placement, things I have to learn, how people come through struggles and hearing success stories. I hope that somebody else out there will get some enjoyment out of reading my silly banter also :) I usually get quite distracted though, especially by makeup tutorials. My latest find is a girl who is also a student nurse who happens to record makeup tutorials - doubly brilliant! I can see it being an issue when I have actual work to do though.

Books: Anatomy and physiology books, advice books, clinical texts, etc. I'm going to write another post about the specific books I've been reading which may help.

Talking to current students/health professionals: I think this is the one that I'm finding the most helpful, after all they've already experienced all of the things I'm researching first hand.

Work: I'm working in care homes at the moment, specifically EMI residential homes. EMI stands for Elderly Mentally Infirm - I hate that name but don't know what else to call it :0/. Every time I go to work I have a million more questions to ask the in-house nurse, who must be very fed up of me by now! I feel very lucky that I'm going into this course with quite a lot of experience in health care under my belt. So many people have to start from scratch and honestly the first time you carry out personal care or feed a very ill person can be quite upsetting and feel strange. I'm glad I was able to do these things in my own time without the worry of being assessed.

Life preparation: I'm thinking a lot about how my life is going to be once I get in to the course. The PGCE completely took over my life and I was so unhappy, so this time I want to make sure that I make time for myself and my family/friends. I have to figure out how I'm going to afford to live. Luckily my boyfriend is amazing and he has said that he'll support me financially. He's a bit of a gem :) I'd like to keep up my agency work but it's very rare that they offer shorter shifts, they're usually 12 hours which I think would be impossible to fit in. I've heard that a lot of students take on some bank work after a round 6 months into their 1st year so that might be an option.

Lists: I am one of those sad creatures who enjoys writing lists - it's literally how I live. Everything goes on my list or in my diary...to then be added to my list, ha! So I've been writing lists of things that I need to research or purchase. Very exciting! I'm not really sure if I need the really nursey things like a stethoscope and a sphygmomanometer (copy and pasted as it's a ridiculous word!). I want them, but do I need them? Perhaps to practice manual BPs - look at me sounding like I know what I'm talking about - I don't by the way ;)

And finally, looking at course content, modules and timetables: All very important things so that I know what the hell I'm going to be doing for the next year. The timetable was an eye opener mind. It's going to be very interesting starting the term in March too.

That's about it for now. Until next time, TTFN!