What To Do Before Becoming A Student Nurse

• Brush up on your math skills as much as possible..drug calculations etc. There are some good websites out there to help, and BBC Bitesize is good for the basics if you haven’t touched on that in a while.

• Following on from this…familiarise yourself with Anatomy & Physiology. There will be exams on this! And this will help loads in learning little bits at a time during your free time. When else will you have this many months of preparation for a single topic where nothing else is also hanging over your head?

• Enjoy your free time as much as possible. Nursing degrees are in university attendance a lot longer than some other degrees. The summer before you start may be your last one with a lot of free time. The following summers you may spend revising, working and / or on placement. Make the most of seeing people and having days where you know you can enjoy the sunshine. It sucks having to be sat in, or even in your garden surrounded by books while everyone is off to Alton Towers or a BBQ..but it definitely pays to work hard!

• Get some stationary and get yourself organised - This includes a USB and / or portable hard drive to back up all of your work. (And me..personally i backup, my backup. As mentioned previously., me and technology sometimes have little fallings out!) Get some lever arch files to organise your notes. And a wall calendar i have always found helps immensely for keeping track of deadlines. And not forgetting, pens pens and more pens. And a pen clip if you’re anything like me. I have lost pens from my tunic pocket at work more often than enough. Bending over making beds, doing personal care etc. My pens have met untimely ends in toilets, bins, soiled laundry and well..you get the picture.

• Socialise! Both online and offline! Make yourself known on twitter etc. I have won a book through this and had tweets published, and it always helps to know your stuff on all things in your chosen field as well as others and all NHS info. Health care is constantly changing and being updated, so it pays to have the most up to date knowledge when it comes to assignments and helping your patients. Just please remember confidentiality. There is nothing worse than working so hard to get where you are to be kicked off your course or have your PIN withdrawn for some daft comment you have made about how bad your day was or how drunk you were the night before.

• In relation to the above…housekeeping. As you are going to be on placement and trained through the NHS, you are now looked at very differently from ‘ordinary students’. Thus, look at your online presence. Can people see you in ridiculous photos on social networking sites? Have you made any stroppy comments about anything that can bring yourself or others into disrepute? Worth thinking about. I have had friends delete all photos from websites, change privacy settings and even their online name so people cannot link them. Nothing worse than having a patient / client etc saying “I see you had a great night last night, bit drunk were we?” Or “That photo of you flashing your bum was hilarious..hope to see more ;) ” This can and will happen, so be aware!

• Research. This is so important. Research your university course you want to apply for, as well as the universities you apply to. Research what field of nursing you apply for and how you can progress. Is there a speciality you’re interested in? Research it! You may not have a definitive idea of how or where you want your career to progress in, but even a vague one is better than nothing. And if you’re ever asked..it may help to know (!)

• Get excited!!! This is a great opportunity and you are about to embark on what is the rest of your life. Never forget the privileged position you are in and why you started in the first place. After all, nursing is an amazing career and will have many ups and downs. Remembering why you are there and how you got to be there can help to keep you grounded and a little more sane when you have those busy insane days where it feels like nothing has gone right.

I’m sure i’ll end up adding more to this once i start. But this is a list from all my research and talking to student nurses etc. I am very lucky in that my place of work sees a lot of placement students. And they are more than happy to answer all my questions that i bug them with! But i will repay the favour when i’m in the same position (fingers crossed everything goes according to plan that is!)


If you can think of anything to add to this then please feel free.


Hope this has helped somewhat and best of luck for the future!

127 Days....Not That I'm Counting!

So…its 127 days until my first class :D 

I feel so excited!!!! However, i actually enrol way before that and get measured for my uniform etc at the very beginning of September. I’ve been trying to keep my mind busy so i have managed to get a copy of R&W Anatomy and Physiology to read up on during the summer. I’ve bought a few books already but they were purchased last year and very early on this year for fairly good prices before demand for them went up! And i got a BNF for my birthday so that’s hopefully going to come in handy.

So i’m not going to buy anymore until university as i know the library stocks a lot of them. And due to me and my partner attending different universities i can also use his library and get books should the others all be out on loan. But the key thing here is to be very very organised!

I remember last time i was at university and come exam time or assignment deadlines looming, all the books were out on loan. So the key is to reserve and have them on loan for near assignment time and to begin that assignment as soon as possible! So im going to hopefully get myself a big wall planner to keep track of everything. 

And i have my phone that is got my planner on as well as linking that with my laptop and then also my trusty Filofax! Couldn’t live without a paper planner / diary. I dont have the best of luck with technology and last time i was completing my dissertation, my whole computer crashed. Everything was lost. Despite many techy friends coming to my aid, i was unable to recover about 90% of the work i had done. So i was back to the start. So always, always, back up your work! I now have 2 USB sticks as well as various online storage facilities and 2 external hard drives. Paranoid? Hmm maybe perhaps..but i’ve learnt and i certainly won’t be losing anything important again! 

So. Thus far i have filled out my police check (DBS or Access NI depending on where you are), i have also had information through the post about my occupational health check. That is almost complete… just waiting on information from my own occupational health department to be sent through the post so i can forward this on to the university’s occupational health department. Luckily my doctor was able to print off and sign my vaccination history very promptly. I was unable to attend the information day the university had for us soon to be students, but this info was sent through the post. This included uniform costs, what to do in the meantime, dates they would be in touch for enrolling, how to sort our NHS Bursary out (the uni forwards on the information to the NHS Bursary department who then contacts us) and last but not least, a little information about our placements. 

I have to commend the university. They have been very prompt in sending out information and getting us organised with police check etc. This is very good considering the amount of police checks that are sent off during the summer months. So i guess my blog may be a little quiet over these summer months apart from you keeping updated with how things are going in regards to getting sorted for September. But then i’m hoping to keep this updated on a regular basis. Not least for reflective practice (very important), but to help potential applicants for Sept 15 entry.

I have scoured the internet high and low for learning disability blogs (not that many), or websites dedicated to the field. It still seems to be a little known field and many seem to think that it may not be worth going into. I’ve heard various things about people worrying about job prospects afterwards and that there aren’t as many clinical skills needed etc. However, anyone who goes into nursing shouldn’t have job prospects as a main deciding factor. I personally believe that you go into it for the love of it, and because you want to be an advocate for your patients. And in L.D nursing, this to me is the most vital aspect of it. A lot of people with a learning disability have communication difficulties, and it is these people who need someone to be an advocate. To help them to communicate, to understand and to ensure they have the capacity to be making any decisions whether that is in regard to their medical health or for something as simple as if they understand how to make a hot drink. 

I personally cannot wait to start the journey in becoming a learning disability nurse. And if you look, there are always jobs for learning disability nurses. They won’t go away. People with learning disabilities aren’t, so why would their need for care? I am hoping to become dually qualified so i can also work with those with mental health. Many people with learning disabilities can have mental health problems too, so to be dually qualified means i will have a greater understanding of my patients and be able to help them a lot more. 

To understand the journey the term ‘learning disabilities’ has made, and those people with learning disabilities, have a look at MENCAP’s report entitled ‘Death by Indifference’ or even ‘Learning Disability Nursing Practice : Origins, Perspectives and Practice’ by Mark Jukes. The attitudes towards those with learning disabilities has changed greatly and so has the care they receive. So by becoming a student L.D nurse, you and I are helping not only those with L.D’s but the general public to overcome the obstacles of understanding and caring, but to carry forward the message that every single one of us is an individual, but we are all equal as individuals. 

If you have any questions or would like to know more..don’t hesitate to ask! That’s primarily why i have started this blog. To help others in understanding learning disability nursing. And the journey in becoming a learning disability nurse. After all, we all as health care professionals are here to help and assist one another in being better at our jobs in all aspects for the welfare of the patients. Clichéd as it may be, we are part of a family. And families are there to support.

Why Learning Disability Nursing?

I suppose when most people ask me why learning disability nursing, i always reply “Why not?” 

It isn’t something most people think of when they think of nursing. Or a field that people may think needs specialised nurses. But the reality is that as we live longer, as we progress in medicine, as we find new cures and new medications, as we advance as we species, there will be new diseases, new learning disabilities and new immunities. 

And there are many, many people that have learning disabilities. It may be mild, they may be very high functioning in that they lead a reasonably independent life. Or it may be that they have such profound learning disabilities that the individual needs care with every aspect of their daily life. And for that reason, i want to help shape the care of the future for those with learning disabilities.

                                             

It is important to recognise the difference between learning disabilities and learning difficulties.

A learning difficulty doesn’t affect general intelligence (IQ) whereas a learning disability does.

Examples of learning difficulties may be dyslexia, dyspraxia or ADHD.

Learning disabilities on the other hand do affect IQ. And generally to be identified as having a learning disability, three criteria need to be met. These are; early onset (presenting before aged 18 years) ; intellectual impairment and social or adaptive dysfunction.

(Please see BILD for more information)

I recently posted that the reason for me going into learning disabilities is to make a difference. To be more than just an advocate, but to show people that those with learning disabilities need to be included, not secluded. And this is enforced in my mind every day.

I work with adults with learning disabilities, and i have done for the past 4 years. i originally started out as a support worker for adults with learning disabilities. This was after i went out to America to work in a special needs camp. Hands down the best summer of my life!

Well worth doing if you ever have the chance. I met some amazing people, it helped shape me as a person and cemented my career goals and aspirations for working with people who need that care and support.

Anyway, i digress.

Working as a support worker i was able to see how those with learning disabilities function day to day. How they integrate within their local community. How they achieve the most monumental of feats due to support, education and assistance.

I then started to be interested in the ‘what happens next?’

Its okay for people to see the day to day functioning, but what happens when someone with a learning disability is admitted to hospital? How do health professionals monitor health? Especially in those with communication difficulties?

I then began working in end of life care, to gain insight into the more clinical side of care. To see what is needed for people in such vulnerable positions. This was eye opening. I worked with people in their own homes who chose to return there from a hospice or hospital setting. And i loved it. Not many people can work with those who need such terminal care, and some may say it takes a special kind of person. But i, myself, would have remained doing that work for a lot longer than i did. But i needed to progress in my career!

So then onwards to working in a day centre facility with adults with learning disabilities. Some have been attending for years, some months and some only weeks. Some are making the transition from child services to adult services. This again, has been another way for me to see yet another side of the care and support that adults with learning disabilities receive. It is a fascinating job and it is utterly amazing the work the staff do. Everything is monitored from weight, hearing, eyesight, communication, to completing goals and tasks to enable someone to write their own name, to choose their lunch independently, to being able to go to zumba classes or even scuba diving!

The work that goes on in a day centre is massively undervalued. When i have worked in supported living (which i still do), i have met staff that will say they dont know what the staff in day centres do. Or why are they so nosey ringing up all the time? Or why do they get paid loads for doing nothing? The list goes on. But what some of these people fail to realise is that all those involved in the care of an individual need to work together. They need to utilise their abilities to communicate and do so! And by doing so it improves the individual’s quality of life, their care and their task learning.

So from here i now go to university (again) in September.

I get to learn more about the care of those with a learning disability and hopefully get to make a difference to someone, even if it is merely helping them put a shoe on. It is the littlest of things that can sometimes make the biggest of differences to a person.

After all, isn’t that what nursing is about?

What Are Nurses?

Nurses Are Advocates...

I absolutely love this video. 
It's touching, honest and most of all heartwarming. 

And another one that says more than words could...

NURSING. It is what we do, who we are and why we love our job!

Nurses Week

So it’s just been nurses week ..May 6th to May 12th…and i am fortunate enough to know a few nurses (family and family friends).

So all the thanks for the job they do as well as helping me through my application went out to them last week!
Honestly do not know where i’d be without their guidance, help and support. I keep waking up every day with a smile on my face that i am lucky enough to get onto a nursing course that i have been dreaming of first time round.
Now i’m not sure how many of you reading will know the history of nurses, but i am sure you have all heard of Florence Nightingale. There is more than enough information out there about her and her amazing work. And if it wasn’t for that incredible woman, who knows how the education of nurses would have turned out. Luckily enough it has turned out from being a nursing training scheme that she established, to later on nursing diplomas and now to nursing degrees. Nursing has long been a profession that has been overlooked and sometimes ridculed for the ‘bum-wiping’ and the ‘talking to patients’. It is a shame that some people do not and may never see the hard work that goes into becoming a nurse, maintaining that education and role as well as the hard work that goes into looking after patients. Now, for anyone that has ever worked in health care, i believe this is no news to you. But for those who haven’t, talking to a patient and carrying out personal care are 2 basic needs of any person that needs to be met. If that was you, would you like to be left to fend for yourself when you know you cant?
There are many many nurses out there, some more famous than others, who have helped to shape the health care system into what it is today. There are many nurses out there who have set an example, who have mentored students, who have spoken at conferences amongst many other things. And it is these nurses who may go unrecognised nationally for their contributions, that need to be thought of and need to thanked.
I am not going to give you a massive historical blurb about nursing. I’m sure you can find that out if you dont know already!
But what i do want to get across is that nursing is a profession that is not because ‘you are a failed doctor’ or because you weren’t clever enough (yes these are comments nurses STILL get today) it is a profession because you care. Because you want to have the patient contact, because you want to make a difference, because you want to help look after people and to ensure that their care is person centered to them.
It is a vocation, a profession, an education and above all, it is part of who you are as a nurse. Nursing doesn’t define you. You define nursing. By going into work every day, whether it is full time, part time or even on placement as a student nurse, you are leading by example. You are shaping the future of nursing. Every day. And that should make you proud to call yourself a nurse.

Congratulations!!

So after i accepted and firmed my offer (my 1st choice uni too!)

I then went out to celebrate.

Food drinks dancing and live music..was a great night!

And my poor partner. I couldn’t stop all day and all night..guess what..im going to be a nurse…Guess what…4 months…Guess what…141 days….Guess what…there’s my uni…Guess what..it’s so exciting i can drive past my uni already!
It was never ending. But the emotional high after all the time planning and preparing your application, the stress you go through sitting and waiting. The guessing game of what order they process applications and interviews. The ‘what if’ that’s always circling your head. The unknown future. The future that someone else holds in their hands. Its all very stressful and daunting. But so so worth it.

So the day after i got an email from the admissions department. Detailing what to do with regards to my police check and occupational health.

I received an unconditional offer as i had already completed all exams etc necessary for entry. However the offer is still subject to satisfactory police check and occupational health check. However, in my current role i have had these done. So im not too worried!

For those who don’t know, an occupational health check is very simple. They need to check your blood for immunity (sometimes not always) and your GP records for when you have had vaccinations and boosters etc. They need to see if you are fit and healthy to be looking after others who aren’t so fit and healthy unfortunately. These will involve checking your hands for wounds, broken skin or skin conditions. It may involve taking a blood sample to test. It may involve you needing a print off of your vaccination history. It’s simply a sit down with an occupational health nurse to assess your current health.

The next step is to fill in the form and get it sent straight back for police checks. If you have never had one of these done or haven’t for a while it can take anything from 2 weeks to 8 weeks to come back. This is why it’s best getting this filled in and sent off straight away. The ID required as proof was seen at my interview, so all i need to do is fill it in, pay and send it off. (Which is what i will be doing today on my day off)
Then the university is holding an information day that will detail everything you need to know in regards to the course etc.

And as luck would have it i fly out the country the day before! But i am hoping they can either email me the information or my partner could possible go (cheeky i know!) I will be emailing them to ask!
So now..im going to be asking everyone nearest and dearest for student nurse gifts. Ie money to buy the very important textbooks (others i can get from the library) Money to buy uniform and many a pen and fob watch! ( I lose mine a lot at work..no idea how)

And so now the countdown until enrolement begins!

141 days to be precise…

May 8th

UCAS offer day. 

Within student nurse / midwifery wannabes circles …this is such an important day!

The internet forums i was on were buzzing, my phone was never out my hand waiting for that dreaded UCAS update email. 

I was at work, so i awoke and off to work i went. Not knowing what the day held in store. It was mad. Everytime my phone went off my heart was in my mouth. And then i tried to forget about it and concentrate on what i was there to do…work!

Then it came to lunch time. I literally had just sat down and my phone went off. UCAS.

'UCAS status application update' -

"Something has changed on your UCAS application." 

This is when having a smart phone and not an old fashioned Nokia is the best blessing! I sat there trying to log into UCAS. In my hurried and nervous state i couldnt remember my application number, or my password. Then when i did i entered it wrong twice. I must have looked like a mad woman hunched over my phone tapping furiously.

I logged in. 

Scrolled down.

OMG!!!!!!!!

Had i read that right? Did that just say congratulations? I think it did. After reading…re-reading and reading again….I’M IN!

Could not believe it!

So i ran outside to make phone calls. I got to start the phone call with a rather loud hurried and VERY excited…

"I’M GOING TO BE A NURSE!!!!!"

This of course then had to be announced to everyone else i knew via other social media outlets. (forgone are the days of carrier pigeon apparently) 

And then i was on a high the rest of the day! 

Best feeling in the world realising that over two years of preparation and hard work as well as progressing in my career over the past several years have been all but worth it. 

It’s all paid off :D