Skills

Oh, such fun! I absolutely LOVE taking part in clinical skills in university. Last day we spent doing drug administration, injections, IV fluids, peg feeding, O2/nebulisers and catheterisation. Everything was great to learn, along with laughs and me making people feel old... Since we learnt all this new stuff I thought I would do a 10 things I learnt. (Heads up, this will be gross etc since we are talking about nursing skills and sensitive procedures).

1. Apparently, putting the IV bag higher will not increase the flow speed... I'm not sure I fully believe this

2. You do sub cut injections at a 45 degree angle (may seem obvious but I was using pre-loaded syringes which you injected at a 90 degree angle)

3. Its alright to question prescriptions and go and see who prescribed what to double check they haven't made a mistake

4. Kids can have bags of feed in a special bag so they can get the food they need to but not miss school

5. You get oxygen masks which have space for a dummy (que for the awwsss)

6. You get inhalers with bears printed on them (que for more awwwwsss)

7. A lot of guys and maybe some girls think that the female genitalia has only 2 orifices

8. You can catheterize a patient in the wrong orifice and not know until urine doesn't come back

9. You pull the skin while doing an inter-muscular injection so that when you remove the needle flesh then goes over the route of the needle and doesn't allow the drug to rise to the surface

10. Generally, by pinching the skin you are unable to get into the muscle when doing a sub cut injection

Right, so there are my 10 things I learnt in skills, it was full of jargon I'm afraid so I apologise if you weren't feeling it because it was rather clinical. Been a ball for me though, have a good week ahead, adios xx

Pssssttt... yea, you there! If you have any suggestions then send them into bluehoofprints@gmail.com

Day in the Life

Hello :)

So, day in the life on the last placement! Well, one word to describe this… LONG! 12 ½ hour shifts really do knock all life out you! So let’s go from the beginning…

6:00 AM

GET UP TIME, or drag your big bum out of bed and try to make any clear brain process! Then get breakfast and tea :P

6:20 AM

Wash face, teeth etc and get changed into uniform, UGLY! But it does the job. Then, do hair up (above the collar rule with hospitals) and lather some make up on. Add all the add-ons to the uniform e.g. fob watch, ID card etc.

6:40 AM

Pack lunch, spare uniform and some money and check-up communication, send a few texts, visit BBC news site and generally update myself on facebook etc.

7:00 AM

Head out to the hospital! Thankfully, live on-site so no need to catch a bus or anything!

7:15 AM

Start shift, now I won’t go into the depths of the timetable of the shift, because it would take too long, so I shall jump forward a bit

8:00 PM (Ish)

Finish shift, yes, not kidding that’s it! INCREDIBLY LONG SHIFTS! Usually get some food if I haven’t already had any and then have a quick shower.

9:00 PM (again, ish)

Watch a wee bit of YouTube and then go to bed

So that’s it! It’s a lengthy old day! One thing you have to consider if your applying for uni or jobs is that the shifts are long, and you can say goodbye to your life while you’re on duty. Also, sleep will be your best friend while on placement/duty; you need to accept that you will get little done in-between shifts. Going from only having to go to school, 8-4 and university 9-3 it is an absolute shock to the system. Make sure you stock up on food or food money so your body is well maintained during shift, you can’t work without fuel!

Right, that’s me I am off to sleep J I am one sleepy bunny! Hope you had an awesome weekend and good luck for the week ahead. Adios xx

My First Placement

My first placement was an amazing beginning to nursing. Here is a wee bit of background. I was on a general medical/diabetes/cardiology/endocrinology ward with around 30 beds, but nurses work on a split basis, side 1 and side 2. The shifts were 12 1/2 hours and apart from 3 nights, all I did was days. The ward was well staffed, with several staff nurses, auxiliary nurses, a housekeeper and domestic staff. The ward itself was well kitted with an array of physiotherapy aids, blood pressure machines, a bladder scanner, ECG machines and a cardiac resuscitation trolley.


While on placement I met plenty of lovely, kind patients who were thankfully patient with me. The staff too were brilliant in "facilitating my learning". My jobs were to complete observations and fill out sews charts, lots of auxiliary work, taking people to the loo, helping with meals etc, fundamental care, sometimes checking blood pressures and filling out charts. I enjoyed every component of it, the fundamental care to the more intricate stuff like injections, venflons and catheters.

I shall leave you with a funny wee story of what went wrong when I took blood pressure!

Bit of a C**k up!

So, I was going round doing everyone's observations and I came to a male patient I had cared for a couple of days. This gentleman was lovely and was very easy to get along with. I was having the usual chat with him, how he was feeling, his gardening etc. I then put the cuff on and pressed the machine on, I continued to chat with him while the machine worked and I scribbled on charts. "Nurse??" :O and his hand was COATED in blood! I looked at it and I TORE the cuff of his arm. I had no idea what to do, but, thankfully there was a nurse in the room doing drugs, so she came over and put his arm in the air and asked me to go get stuff. I was shocked by this! What had happened, was, his venflon had come out and neither of us had realised. It was a rather big boo boo..... to say the least...

Introduction

Hello there :)

Welcome to my Blog. I thought, since I am now well into my training, I thought I might start a blog, of my ups and downs with studying nursing. So, here is a wee introduction to me :)

I am a 17 year old, straight of school girl embarking on a nursing degree. I am 4 months in to my training and within that, have completed my first semester of 9, including clinical placement. I am studying in Scotland, and from Scotland (Although, I do have a slight english accent). I am currently living and studying on a hospital campus, which means I can't really go anywhere without passing patients or ambulances. I am a keen learner and am seriously enjoying all aspects of nursing, well... maybe not the theory exams..


Now, I read a lot of nursing blogs, and I find that all the ones I read, are fully qualified, experienced nurses. I thought it was time to fill the gap of what it's like to be chucked into the whirlwind of the medical world while being a teen (or even just having never done anything like this). I have an equestrian blog, which I started last year as a new years goal, since I am unable to be involved with horses that much, this seemed like a perfect idea to start this up. There are just a few things I should probably go over, just for clarity. I am not here to be smart or informative, I have only being doing this for a short period of time and will take me years to become slightly experienced. I am here to share my stories of working in an array of nursing roles and studying in a concentrated course.  Also, my posts will be very anonymised since A) Confidentiality! and B) It's the internet, and I don't want everyone to know where I am or working.

Ok, ooft, I think we have got there :) Summary, fun stories and struggles shared with everyone, but in no way informative. Yep. Think that sums up what this blog is. I will be posting every Sunday, so expect a post tomorrow :)

Adios xx