Student Nurse Blog Week 5

September 22nd 2004

Well everybody,
The course is actually going well and I am totally enjoying it! One thing I do have to say about this course is it is very true to the 50% theory/50% practice. Until we start our practice placement, we literally spend all day, every day in the University. This week we did have Monday off for a study day, but you do need to use the study days constructively.

For example, on the Monday I had to go to the RW Hospital to collect my student nurse uniform. I then had to go to the Alex hospital for an interview with NHS Professionals, because they could not fit the interview in at the WRH. They were very impressed with my answers at the interview, citing them as some of the best answers they had heard!

I am now just waiting for them to obtain my references, send me my uniform vouchers, collect the ’bank’ uniform and then sort out my first shifts - then let the extra money roll in!!

I then spent the rest of the Monday reading up and studying A+P. This is another area that is really covered well. We have had A+P everyday this week, with a whole morning lecture on the subject each day. And each lecture we have on A+P covers a different system (Intro into Physiology; The Digestive System; Tissues and Cells; today we had the Respiratory System and then on Tuesday we will be doing the cardiovascular system). It’s great, because here at the uni they have a strong belief in having good A+P knowledge, to link in with diagnosis and a deeper understanding of conditions, symptoms, etc. As I eventually want to specialise in emergency medicine, I have a great love for A+P as well, although my understanding of the content is getting a little less as we move further into the lectures! However, at least during the A+P lectures we are told what the main areas of the subject are that we need to focus on for the exam. So we learn about the overall subject, are able to read up further into the subject in our own time, but are also aware of what we need to know within that area for the exam - they are quite supportive in that way!

I feel that the study days we do get will be very important. We receive handouts for every lecture we have. I would say that for 70% of those lectures (definitely 100% for the A+P lectures) we need to go away and read through the handouts, as well as studying further into the subject areas. For 50% of the lectures we also have directed study to do in some form or another. If you are in University every day of the week, or almost every day, and you have lectures for the whole of the day, you need to spend at least two evenings and one day of the weekend studying and reading, so any study days we get are very valuable!!

But all in all I think the course is going extremely well. We split into our classes as of Monday next week and start to do more lessons that way. I think this is much better, as it’s easier to learn things in a class of 15, as opposed to trying to listen and learn when in a group of 120 people!!

Anyway, Monday next week is another study day for my class, so I will be studying lots of A+P and will start researching for my first assignment!!

I have also managed to get quite involved in the student life of the university as well, although it is a little difficult as a student nurse!

That’s all for now folks, if you’re thinking of doing your nurse training, then come to Worcester, I think it’s one of the best uni’s ever!!!!!!! Matt





Well, guys, the training is going well, unfortunately, we do have some very boring parts to our training. I think that (unofficially) the reason we spend so much time studying - and get only seven weeks holiday per year is so that we have more flexibility over meeting our minimum required theory hours. This means that we (unofficially) are allowed to miss a greater amount of lectures due to sickness or compassionate reasons, without the risk of not meeting our minimum theory hours as laid down by the NMC.

The only down side of this is that we do get some very boring lectures. Thursday wasn’t too bad. In the morning our intake had a lecture in two groups (which is how we will continue to do the ’Context of Nursing’ lectures. Our group (group b) tend to have the lectures with a slant towards the psychological and psychiatric perspective - which is great, as I have a heavy interest in (and a Diploma in) psychology).

The lecture we had on Thursday morning was ’What is a profession’, where we examined what criteria was required to make something just a job, something else a vocation, and something else a profession. We also examined how professions had changed over the years, as society no longer accepted certain things as professions. It was actually quite an interesting lecture.

In the afternoon we had a lecture on ’Healthcare in the UK’ regarding how healthcare had changed, how it had faced various different challenges from society, and some of the land marks along the history of healthcare (such as when the first kidney transplant occurred, when the first heart bypass was carried out, etc.). So that was also quite an interesting lecture - and also linked in with one of the assignments we’ve been given ,Changes in an area of Healthcare.
Unfortunately, I have to admit that I found Friday a complete waste of time. In the morning we had Critical Thinking, which was basically covering areas of learning and how our thinking and learning styles changed from when we were at school, to when we were at college to now, with our learning time being at University.
I suppose for those people who have not done any recent learning for many years it would be quite a valuable lecture. However, it seemed for most of us that it was not really that valuable. I do realise that previous relevant experience alone (with good school grades) can get
you onto a nursing course. However, you usually find that most people on the course will have either done NVQs, Access Course, or some other kind of formal training and study prior to coming onto the course.
So the lecture was very boring and went very slowly. In the afternoon we had Active Reading, which was covering, well......................how to learn! Again, I think that for most people it was a complete waste of time. I didn’t actually attend that lecture and instead went to the library to check my emails and do some study.

Anyway, today is Saturday (I have a very big hangover from last night, when I went to ’Skool Daze’ one of the Fresher week evening events!) I am doing a study day to day at the uni library, then tomorrow I am spending the day with my new girlfriend - who is also a student nurse then I have a study day again on Monday, so I will spend some of the time here at the Uni.

Till next time, I bid you farewell (I’ll be back Monday or Tuesday!!). Matt

Catch up with Matt in the Nursing Forum

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