Student Nurse Blog Week 4

September 15th 2004

Okay, so I am halfway through the second week of nurse training. This is more like it! In the morning we tackled some of the fears we had about being student nurses (such as more responsibility, accountability, placements, finance, etc.) These were raised from our ice-breaking work in our groups from the previous week.

Once the lecturer (our foundation co-ordinator, who is great :lol had unpacked some of these fears we took time out for a coffee break. The second half of the morning was concentrating on ’exploring nursing practice’. This was just covering what the module involved. Then we were given our first assignment (2,500 words!) The lecturer went through the assignment with us regarding what should be covered in the content, how to lay it out, the basic structure, and how to go about identifying a patient for the assignment. Obviously, we can’t start it until we get our first placements, but it’s something to think about until then. They also covered confidentiality aspects with regard to the location, patient, and conditions included in the assignment.
Anyway, they explained things very well and there is a lot of support available to us. We were then given some reference search handouts and exercises to start as homework. Then we had lunch. In the afternoon we covered Handling and Moving (if,like me, you have worked at various nursing homes, then at an NHS Hospital, then this lecture is incredibly boring, but must be done for those with very little care experience)!
On the Tuesday we did an introduction to A+P (fairly detailed) and was given some homework to do (In the form of filling out blank spaces in a paragraph on the pH table). The afternoon involved a lecture on infection control, with some more homework to do.
Today, we had A+P The Digestive System (they do seem to cover A+P subjects very well and have an emphasis on not just needing to know where parts of the body are, but also how systems interlink and relate to certain conditions and disorders). The afternoon was a lecture nutrition - which was very interesting.
The course seems to involve a large amount of A+P, which I do feel is very good. They have a heavy concentration on theory as well as practice - perhaps this is why we only have 7 weeks holiday per year.
Anyway, there is a lot of support available for us as students, but we are also expected to do a lot of self-directed reading and study (without necessarily being prompted). The course is quite academic, and we have already had 13 people drop out - by the end of the first week!

The days aren’t too long. We start lectures at 930am and finish (on average) by 330pm - although we are scheduled to have lectures until 4pm. We have our first Directed Study day on Monday next week, but then we have the reference
search exercises to start before the study period on referencing the week after, and some of us also have to pick up our uniforms from the hospital.

For anyone who is not really au fait with A+P there is no cause to worry. The first year A+P lecturer is very good and during the first semester only covers the very basics of A+P. This helps to bring all of the students up to the same level of knowledge, ready to cover A+P in more detail during the second semester (when we also have our first A+P exam.)

Til next time......
.......wish me luck!!!!!

Catch up with Matt in the Nursing Forum

Bye for now!

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