The Beginning Of Second Year

Hi everyone!

After a lovely summer off, I'm back!

Back to my blog, and back to second year!

I passed all my exams and my assignments. I enjoyed a summer off (well, I worked) and it's good to be back in university.

Now it'll start to sink in a lot more as the work steps up a gear and we are expected to amalgamate all we learnt in first year with everything we are learning in second year.

Its not like some other courses where once first year is passed you don't worry about it too much, we still need to know all that and more! 

This year we will be covering all things learning disability.  This year all fields branch off and are in the individual classes specific to our field. Of course this is great for my course as there are only 30 of us! 

So we are all getting to know one another and have a great relationship with our lecturers as they know us a lot more as individuals as there are so few of us compared to the other fields.

I am looking forward to getting started this year but it is also a little nerve wracking.  We will be on placements with first years and be expected to guide them.  We are expected to know the evidence and the rationale behind what we are doing a lot more; evidence based practice is a big thing in nursing these days! 

We will be picking up our portfolios in the coming weeks and we will be able to collect our new epaulettes for second year for our uniforms. We should also find out our placements for November too. 

Sadly, there has been yet more people drop out of the course over the summer.  This, unfortunately, is the reality of this course.  No one ever said nursing would be easy! Or that it is definitely for you.  Having looked back over the past year and realised how much we have learnt (even when you think you haven't!) it is astonishing the pace in which we learn. 

Good luck to everyone starting this year. As always, enjoy it and make the most of it!

Results

Hey!

Hope everyone is doing well!

I have finished placement and I have received my final year results! 

And in case you have not guessed by all the exclamation marks I am over the moon!! 

It was what seemed like a very long day of having our results put online one by one.  Forever checking the university portal to see what we had! 

I think that was the most stressful thing about the exams! 

It was a very long day and our last result was not up until about 6pm. So you can imagine everyone's frustrations.  

There were a few students who failed an exam or assignments so they are redoing them in August.  There has been support from the tutors for them and then practice questions placed online for them to go over and hopefully assist with their exams. 

Anyhoo, I am so glad it is all over and done with. I have submitted my portfolio from placement and our OSCE results had to be stapled in there too. I also included drawings that I was given from students on my placement too (no names on them). So once that is marked by my tutor and then sent off to the exam board to be ratified then that is me done. We then have to register again in September to say we are returning and then our timetables and new modules will be placed online.  

I was so very happy with my results that I did a little happy dance around the house! 

So now I am going to enjoy a summer off.  I will be volunteering and doing duties with St John Ambulance to keep my clinical skills up.  I also have been driving the ambulance as well, so I will be studying for my test in that to then hopefully drive under blue light conditions.  I am also going to be working for the agencies that I am registered with, so I will be working in a variety of settings there too.  I find this not only helps with your clinical skills, but also helps in finding your feet in different settings and boosting your confidence.  It is just important to remember that although you can do things as a nursing student, when working, you may not be able to.  So always work within your remit and competencies.  

Enjoy your summer everyone, I will be back with a few more posts during, just not as regular as term time! 

Midway through Placement

I have now finished my third week of placement and it has been great. 

In the day centre they had a summer fete for all the students where their carers and family can come in to meet everyone. Despite the weather looking a bit iffy (rain, wind and sunshine) it ended up a really nice day.

The summer fete was a little fete that the day centre holds every year. There are many stalls that the students have crafted things for to sell and the staff have assisted with. Their families and friends donate things that can be sold and the students help man the stalls if they so wish or can just go around looking and buying and taking part in the activities. 

We had a tombola, hoopla, arts and crafts stall, sweet stall, badge making, flowers and even an opportunity to throw wet sponges at staff standing behind a frozen board (or just take a photo!)

This was made by staff, it looked amazing.

Here is me and an adult nursing student from another university modelling the board!

It was a lovely day where we had a band in playing music, a barbecue and plenty of snacks.  It is a day the students really enjoy and can look forward to. It marks the end of their classes in the day centre before the summer scheme begins. 
Half way through our placement we have a midway review so we can discuss with our mentor what we would like to achieve before we finish and how we have found placement so far. I have focused on communication and improving my Makaton skills in this placement as our students range from profound and multiple disabilities (PMLD) to more higher functioning and independent students. I have been able to make myself a folder containing lots of Makaton information that I have able to do from resources provided by the centre then from the Makaton website.

Here is a sample of the Makaton information I have that may come in useful as a nurse!

Summer scheme starts next week and I am really looking forward to that. All of us nursing students will have the opportunity to accompany the staff and students on outings around the local city and just beyond.  I've been told the activities include a city tour, a trip to the local cat and donkey sanctuaries, a trip on a boat, bowling, cinemas and many more. 

So I am looking forward to that! 

Of course I won't be able to upload any pictures of the students but I shall try and take photographs of the activities.
So far it had been such an amazing learning experience and I have been able to meet adult nursing students that have been very active in learning about learning disabilities and the various conditions and syndromes that can present in people with learning disabilities. 
Active learning is the best kind of learning! 

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!