Student Nurse Blog Week 12

November 8th 2004

Hi folks, well last week was great with regards to my placement. I have learnt so much.

On the Friday I worked an early shift and started by doing the drugs round supervised by the one of the Sisters. I was supposed to be doing a night shift, but have changed my shifts now as I have changed my mentor. My original mentor was the previous ward sister/manager, who is leaving next week. My new mentor is the new ward sister/manager. During the early stages of the shift I was also able to watch two Sisters, a nurse practitioner and two doctors round a very poorly patient. He had deteriorated quite unexpectedly during the morning by becoming unconscious in his chair. Whilst a nurse and I helped him into bed, the sister grabbed the crash trolley and bleeped the doctors. Whilst that was happening I put the patient on oxygen and took his BP. Luckily the patient came round and was okay in the end, the doctors want to check his pacemaker and because he had a lot of pain around his abdomen, he was catheterised.
I was also able to give my first (supervised) IM injection. Unfortunately, whilst trying to open the glass ampoule it shattered and cut my thumb, but it was all clean and new, so no risk of infection. I was able to get a new ampoule and drew up the medication. I gave the patient the injection and he didn’t feel a thing. The supervising nurse said that I’d done a really good job. Then I was able to stand in on the ward rounds. But before that I had to take a phone call from a social worker regarding the discharge of a patient in the section of the ward I was working in. I explained that I was only a student and she said that was the best way to learn and gave me her contact details in case a nurse needed to call her back. Using my knowledge of the patient I talked to the social worker regarding his discharge. I then joined the ward rounds and informed the sister of the contents of the phone call. When we got to the patient concerned, the sister handed the doctors over to me, so that I could brief the team regarding that patient’s discharge and social care package. Then I had to document that in his notes, showed it to the sister who then countersigned it for me. Then I had to arrange that patient’s transport home for after the weekend (being discharge Monday afternoon) and document the transport arrangements plus the booking number in the patient’s notes. It was a great shift. I was able to yet again practice clinical and patient management skills, as well as essential nursing care such as feeding patients, helping with hygiene, etc.

Over the weekend I had a fairly relaxed time and did some reading on child development (birth to five years old) from a book my health visitor had given me during my first community placement. Then I did some reading up on the psychosocial effects of epilepsy for the Problem Based Learning (PBL) presentation that we have to present in early December.

Today we did a clinical care day on fluid balance and specimen collection - theory and practice. Tomorrow I have an early shift and a late shift on Wednesday, then another clinical care day on Thursday on drug administration. Friday at 830am I am meeting with the neuro physiotherapist to work with her until late afternoon when I will go back on the stroke assessment unit or into infectious diseases!

What a great schedule, although I also have to start on the research and written part of my case study. I have selected a patient and got their consent. Now I just need to do the research and put things on paper. It has to be handed in by the end of January.

I will try and update the blog perhaps on Thursday.
Til then, HAVE FUN!!!!!!!! Matt




Hi Everyone, anyway, things have just got better since my last blog. The junior sister on my placement ward is leaving us today (Sunday) to work on a haematology ward. She invited me up there on Thursday when I finished my clinical care day. She was working a ’bank’ shift up there and showed me around, then told me i could pop up to see her anytime I wanted to, for either help on my practice placement workbook, experience up there or just for a chat.

On the Friday I met the neuro physiotherapists at the Stroke Assessment Unit nursing station and they took me around with them, as they visited patients on the Stroke Assessment Unit and other neuro patients around the hospital. I helped out as I went round with them, so I could get a closer look at what was involved in assessments and exercises and what they were looking for in the patients during these sessions. I learnt a lot about neuro physiotherapy and why positioning was so important - especially with stroke patients.

I finished with them at 245pm and then went back to my placement ward to speak to a patient. I had chosen her for my case study, had read through her medical notes and now wanted to get her consent to use her in my case study. I chatted to her and explained what was involved and covered confidentiality. She gave me her consent and we talked about her various medical conditions. Then she told me that the doctors had told her she had anaemia. She didn’t understand what they meant or what it involved, because they had talked to her using jargon and in a way that she didn’t understand.

I told her what I knew about anaemia and iron deficiency anaemia (which is what she was suffering from) and told her I would research some information on it for her and come back on Sunday to visit her, give her the information, and explain it to her in a language that she understood. I have just printed a load of information off from medical databases on anaemia and iron deficiency anaemia and am now going to see the patient. I believe that we should give patients as much information as possible about their illnesses and/or conditions and explain things to them in a language they can understand. This can then empower them and help to involve them in the solution to their medical problems.

Tomorrow I have my intermediate interview for my practice placement workbook. This week coming is my last full week on placement this month. The week after I am only on placement Monday and Tuesday, before going back to University on the Wednesday. We do not go back to our current placements again until the 6th December, where we then stay out on placement until Christmas. We get two weeks off for Christmas, followed by one week independent study, followed by one and a half weeks on placement, then Uni for one and a half weeks, then back on placement for three weeks, then it’s the end of our first semester!!!!!! Matt

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