Student Nurse Blog Week 7

October 6th 2004

Well everyone, hello again,
I had a fairly chilled out time over the weekend, as my girlfriend (who is also one of my house-mates oops) went home for the weekend. On the Saturday I spent the day shopping in the city. I went out in the evening with my other two house-mates to the cinema. On the Sunday I made it a study day. My girlfriend got a lift back with her mother (who wanted to meet me!!!). It all went well, she didn’t bite me, and I’m still living, so that’s something!

The Monday was a study day, so I spent most of the day in the University looking through websites and doing some reading in preparation for writing my first assignment. I also got a referencing exercise done - something we had to do as part of our ’directed study’.

On the Tuesday we had first aid in the morning. We didn’t cover much in this session, only covering what first aid was, the responsibility of student nurses and qualified nurses in first aid situations, actions to be taken in a first aid situation, secondary examination, recovery position, a little bit of bandaging and how to do two slings. As I have done a ’First Aid at Work’ course (plus I have done first aid training continuously throughout my adult life), it was really a waste of time for me - except for the part that covered the student nurses responsibilities.

In the afternoon we had coping strategies, which covered stress, the signs and symptoms of stress, different causes of stress and coping strategies to try to reduce stress.

I went to view my placement at 5pm. The ward has quite a strange layout, with two nurse’s stations. I was greeted by one of my mentors, who was very nice and supportive. She gave me a brief talk about the ward - it is stroke and infectious diseases (yes, even she said it was a strange combination). It was not so much of a ward, as more of two four bedded stoke assessment rooms (one male, one female), with ten side rooms (with a selection having ’negative pressure’ for infectious patients), with a further two side rooms specifically for SARS patients. The main infectious diseases they deal with are HIV, Hep B, Hep C, and TB. It looks a very interesting and exciting place to work. She basically said that I could write my own off-duty if I wanted - how nice of her! I declined and explained that I didn’t mind what shifts I worked (earlies, lates, nights, etc.) as I had experience in a hospital of shift work. I placed the emphasis of working with my mentor, so she gave me a few shifts. Then she said that apart from my placement workbook tasks, she wanted to give me as much experience as possible (away from the ward environment), and would set me up to work with the Stroke Nurse Practitioner, the Senior Clinical Bleep Holder, the Physio Therapists, Occupational Therapists, and any one else involved as the multi-disciplinary team around stroke care/rehab and infectious diseases.

I can see that I am going to like this placement - as well as gaining a wealth of experience and knowledge! I can’t wait to start.

Incidentally, I have contacted the organisation I was going to do the sponsored sky dive with and have rearranged the jump date for sometime during the first week in January (2005). This will give me more time to raise sponsorship, and allow me to easily raise the minimum amount required.

Today (Wednesday) we had documentation in the morning. This just covered different types of documentation, the importance of good record keeping (in case we need it as defence at a later date - i.e. increasing litigation against nurses and other healthcare professionals, and auditing documentation.

In the afternoon we had therapeutic relationships, which covered the essential relationship between the nurse and the patient, the importance of that relationship, and how it can help to improve the quality of the patient’s care and their stay in hospital. We then briefly went onto discuss complimentary therapies. This is something I am familiar with, as I do strongly support alternative and complimentary therapies, and currently attend a holistic centre when I have spare time.

Anyway, that’s been my week so far. A fairly relaxed, but informative selection of lessons.
But now I must go, as I need to do some more work on my assignment - I need to start writing it, as it is due in less than 5 weeks times (and we start our placements in three weeks!!)

Til the next time catch ya all lata.




Hello there,
Glad to see that you still come and visit me!
It was a bit of an anti-climax finish to the week, with the last two days being a bit of a waste of time.

On the Thursday morning we had tutorial sessions with the tutors in small groups. Myself, two of my housemates and another colleague in our group had an 11.15am appointment.
Whilst I was waiting for the appointment, I spent some time in the library reading up some books on clinical governance. I had seen the same tutor the day before (she had taken us for documentation), and I had asked her about the subject I had chosen for my essay. She then told me that she thought Nursing Research was too bigger subject to cover in a 1,500 word essay and that I should save it for J12 (I imagine that is an essay we get to do in year 2 that is bigger than 1,500?!). So we decided that I would tweak the subject (as she thought it was a good area to cover) and do the essay on Clinical Governance and Evidence Based Practice. So, on the Thursday morning the tutor was running behind and we got to see her at 11.40am, instead of 11.15am. It went well and she gave us some good advice on our essay.

In the afternoon we were supposed to have ’Patient’s right to care’, but the lecturer had swapped with someone else. This other lecturer had obviously forgotten, as she was working from home that day, so we were given the rest of the afternoon off. I went to the library to do some more reading - and check my emails.

The Friday for my class had been rearranged. So, instead of being in all day, we only came in for the morning and did a class on ’Learning from patients’, where we covered the admission process, interviewing techniques, interpersonal skills and the psychological factors and signs to look for when talking to patients. It was quite an interesting session. The tutor we had for this session also agreed that it could be frustrating when such time is wasted (as it was on Thursday), when we could instead be using that time to work on our assignments, or do directed study!!

Unfortunately, it is something that apparently happens every year, so we will just have to learn to adapt to it, and overcome any situations we are greeted with!

Until the next time, Matt.

Catch up with Matt in the Nursing Forum

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