Halfway through Phase 4....

So I have now finished my first 3 weeks out of 6.

Then I go to placement 4....Yes 4!

It is honestly flying in and I struggle to know where the time has gone!

Just wanted to update you on what we have covered so far.

We have managed to cover a lot in evidence based nursing, looking at different types of research and searching for research papers. We have then recapped our nursing models, but gone in to greater detail about the relevance of these within the learning disability field and then how we can apply these when assessing and assisting those with a learning disability.

We have also had our practicals, where once again we were assessed informally on our basic life support and what to do should we ever come across an unconscious patient.  We then covered the emergency trolley and its contents.

We looked at the different types of airway (which I have covered in a previous post) and how to assist the doctors in inserting and maintaining an airway. We will go into greater detail about this soon when we cover tracheotomies and how to suction these to maintain a palpable airway.

We have also been able to cover a lot of nursing care and nursing models within learning disability nursing.  It has been a fast few weeks and straight away it was discussion about placements and our assignments.  It is also important to maintain our skills and keep these up to date where we can.  

Very short post, but these 6 weeks are a lot of theory behind learning disability nursing, assessments and care plans and health facilitation. 

A good book to read on this is;

This book has a lot of theoretical information in it that is very useful for learning disability nursing.  
A lot of what we have covered has recapped last year's lectures and then gone into further detail.   For example, we covered Roper, Logan and Tierney last year.  We have then gone into further detail about the model this year covering Activities of Daily Living.  There may be 12 listed, but in learning disability nursing, you can cover up to 15, including mental health and personality.  This is especially important if the person you are looking after may be non-verbal and / or have difficulty communicating.  This ensures that those reading their care plan have as much information as possible to help facilitate good, all -round care for the individual.  
A very short post, but I don't think there is a lot for me to write without sounding like I am writing an essay or lecturing you!