Enrolment - Part 2

So i've now enrolled online and keep checking my university emails.

Enrolling was pretty straight forward, follow a step by step system of inputting names, addresses, emergency contacts and how to pay your fees. As i am doing a nursing course this is currently still funded by the NHS, so i don't have to worry about fee payment. 

That does make me feel a lot better as going from a full time salary to a small bursary is difficult.  I have been budgeting since i knew i was successful in gaining a place. 

Feels weird now having to do that, after graduating 5 years ago it's beginning to feel like another lifetime. 

So much has happened since then. And it does sound so clichéd but time definitely seems to go quicker as you get older!

And now it is enrolling down at the university. Since i have organised our study and all my paperwork, all my certificates, from my GCSE's to training at work, are all in one folder. This meant i could take the folder down to university and let them have a look and see the originals. TIP: Never lose any certificate you are ever given as even years down the line they may be needed! I completed my GCSE's over 10 years ago and i still have them and still need them!

Enrolment is fairly straight forward, it's remembering to bring everything with you. 

Your university will tell you what is needed, in terms of ID, certificates, if you need to bring a photo or if they take one on the day (don't turn up hungover looking worse for wear!).

We had our photo taken and our certificates checked.  We were then measured for our uniform and had to pay for that (remember the cheque book) and then through to confirm our enrollment.  We had to go through our details and ensure we had certificates if they were needed. From this, through to yet another room to get our photo taken for our student card. 

It was all very straight forward and the staff helping us out were students at the university so we knew we were in good hands! After that we were given a time for our occupational health check by the university. This is next week. I don't know exactly what they are going to do but i can't imagine it being much different from my occupational health check for work. But i am sure i will let you all know! 

So now i have my student card that says i am a nursing student, i have my timetable (this is posted online) and i have my uniform ordered. Seems to be getting very real now!

I also have gone down to the library and being a little ahead of everyone else got a few books out :D 

Only because i know once we have our reading lists everyone will be straight to the library to get them out or to buy them. So through research i have taken out the basic ones which i had taken out a while back (mentioned in a previous post).  

Now its stationery and bag buying time! 

Enrolment - Part 1

So in the last few days i've received my welcome pack from university as well as my starter pack. 

Its starting to make it feel a little bit more real now, although i don't think its really going to sink in until i get my student card and im sat in our induction lecture. 

Our welcome pack detailed when to enroll online and what to do. It gave us our university email address (time to start using that to get student discounts!) and information about what is happening in Welcome Week, which is also listed on their Facebook pages. 

These were sent out to all students, and the starter pack is individual to our school. 

For example, as i am doing Learning Disability Nursing i am part of the School of Nursing. 

So then our starter pack has been sent out detailing uniform times, enrolment times, our welcome week timetable and what to do for occupational health. 

So we have to log online to start our online enrolment, fairly straightforward and our welcome pack details how to do this. 

And then from there we attend our enrolment appointment at the university.  This is where i have to take evidence of all my previous qualifications, which should be fun trying to find them all and putting them all together.  Luckily i'm fairly organised anyway but after moving they are all still packed in a box somewhere! 

And once enrolment and our uniform is sorted we then need to attend an appointment for occupational health.  Once that is done we can then look forward to Welcome Week!

Welcome Week is the infamous Fresher's Week at most universities.

The university organises events for everyone to settle in and get to know one another.  During this week your school will also organise for you to go to induction lectures to give you your timetables, module information and your tutorial groups etc.

This is usually a time where everyone is feeling just as nervous as you probably are and everyone is in the same position.  

Luckily, today we have social networking sites where people can get to know one another a little before they meet at university. At the risk of sounding somewhat old, when i first attended university Facebook, Twitter etc weren't really up and running as such then and i went to university completely blank. I didn't know what to expect, who was going to be there and what was going to happen.  But i put myself out there and purposely went and knocked on other flat doors in the halls of residence i was in. This way i was able to meet people and l made some good friends this way. 

I can start my online enrolment next week (this is earlier than other students as nursing and midwifery students start earlier and we also are at university longer during the academic year).

It still doesn't feel massively real but it is exciting and unbelievably exhilarating knowing i have gotten this far.  

Work hard and you can achieve anything.  

Ignorance is not bliss.

So only a few more weeks to go until induction.
I've been trying to get my blog out there and make and more people aware of the learning disability branch of nursing. Especially when I am still seeing articles of health care professionals (hcp's) not understanding or even trying to, those with a learning disability. It has to be one of the most annoying things that those who are meant to be trained and work following the 6 c's of nursing ignoring all that?
In the past week I've had 2 very recently qualified adult nurses talk about how l.d is all community and how we don't do anything clinical and how we can't do iv's and we can't take blood and we can't do x, y and z.
It shows that even the most recently trained of nurses can still be ignorant. I have been told communicating isn't hard and how l.d is not a hard subject.
It does take a lot for me to not bite people's heads off at such things! In the years I've worked with people with l.d and the hcp's that liaise with them I've seen appalling communication! Talking to me and not the individual, pretending to understand then looking to me for clarification, just simply nodding and agreeing, hoping that the individual may stop talking. Constantly asking other hcp's for help when the person may be showing a behaviour that may challenge.
The list can go on and on.
Yet it is the carers and the health care professionals that work with the individual on a frequent basis that will know most about that person. And there are many conditions that people with learning disabilities have that many people have not heard of. All of this needs to be publicised more and to give those with a learning disability a bigger voice. There is only so much the parents or carers can do. They need the likes of learning disability nurses to assist them, to enable them to look after the individual to their best ability. They want the public to know more, the doctors, the nurses, the psychologists, the speech and language team, everyone needs to be made more aware.
Learning disabilities are not going to go away. They won't diminish and they certainly will not stop happening.
If you're scared there's not going to be a job at the end of the degree, don't be.
People are living longer, they're living fuller and sometimes riskier lives. People are having children later on in life, people may experience medical trauma. All of the above and more can contribute as to why someone may have a learning disability. And these people need qualified knowledgeable professionals to help and assist in their care.
Learning disability nurses can deal with newborn babies, premature, and inutero.  They can deal with children and adults. Learning disabilities do not discriminate with age. They can affect anyone. So in being a learning disability nurse you are experiencing a wide age range. A variety of people. And that makes you just as qualified as any other branch.

On my travels

Hi all :)

So today I'm travelling seeing family and friends. Will probably be the last time for a while so im making the most of it. 

It's weird how quick this summer seems to be going when I keep thinking it's dragging. But I have re-read some of my earlier blog posts and some statuses etc from social sites and it has gone very quick. 

I am more or less sorted for starting university apart from getting my house organised.  

Me and my partner have just moved so everything I did have organised is now lying in boxes. 

But so far, I have a diary (using a filofax), a wall planner, many lever arch files, many pens, highlighters, notepads, hole punch, poly pockets, a dictaphone, a usb stick, 2 external hard drives and my laptop.

So seemingly stationary wise I appear to have what I may need. Failing that, there will be the Welcome Week fair where you always bag some freebies! Even if it is just a few pens! 

I've seen a good few people panicking about occupational health checks still, what to do about finances, what bag to use, if to have a tablet, how you can get on with others, what age group will be in your cohort etc. The list goes on.

But my advice would be to not worry too much.  Universities will send out information that you will need and there will be induction classes before your actual classes get underway. 

I'm now just waiting on information being sent from my university in regards to induction and when to go for uniform measurement etc.  And then once that's on I can sort out how I'm getting it off work! 

But I am really looking forward to starting and seeing how the course is structured and how much work we will get!

So only a little longer to wait and then university starts. After all them months of waiting, finally!