Student Nurse Blog Year 3 - Week 36

April 20th 2007

Posted 20/04/2007

Well, hi everyone, hope you all had a great Easter! My time was certainly busy. My life is certainly very exciting, never dull and quite often a challenge! The first week I had off was spent working for the pub at the weekend, followed by all day Monday, Wednesday and Thursday working for BUPA in theatres. It was very exciting and I certainly enjoyed it. The Monday morning wasn't so exciting, as I spent the whole morning reading their policies, procedures and guidelines, but in the afternoon I was in Theatre 3, which is Endoscopy. It wasn't like the Endoscopy clinics that I'm used to from the Acute NHS Trust, but then again private hospitals only deal with elective procedures and don't have the acutely ill patients and emergencies that the NHS does!

Wednesday and Thursday was spent in theatres 1 and 2 doing a variety of interesting operations. I learnt a lot and found it good preparation for my final clinical placement - which is in the theatre department of the city hospital.

I travelled down to Somerset on the Thursday evening to visit a friend, then spent the Saturday to the following Sunday helping out one of my other friends by running one of his fast food outlets for him. It was a very busy bank holiday weekend, plus we were short staffed! Despite the long hours I had a great time. I visited another friend on the Monday and returned to Worcester that evening.

Tuesday morning I had a meeting with the training sister from the theatre department at the city hospital. I was there with another student from my course. The meeting went well and we were given an induction pack, an overview of the department, followed by a tour from a student currently on placement there. I spent the afternoon sorting out admin, mail and paperwork that had been waiting for me when I returned from Somerset. Wednesday morning I had a smoking cessation brief intervention course to attend. It was run by the Worcestershire PCT and was held at a building museum in Bromsgrove. So I had to get up at 6am, to catch an early train and then a taxi. It was a very interesting course; I can't wait to do the two-day smoking cessation advisor course!

I spent the afternoon looking around Bromsgrove - a nice place, but not a great deal to see - before returning home to get on with some more work.

Thursday I was working in Theatres at BUPA again. A very good day with some brilliant teaching opportunities throughout the whole day, I really enjoyed it. I started at 8am and didn't finish until 540pm. Today (Friday) I am back in theatres with BUPA 8am until 3pm. I have a private client to see at 4pm. Then I am back at BUPA at 8pm on the ward until around 11pm, when I then go on-call/sleep in for the ward until 8am. Saturday I am planning to finish off my management assignment. That will just leave with the ethics/law assignment to do. Saturday night I am back at BUPA on the ward 8pm until 11pm and then on-call/sleep in until 8am.

So, what else has been happening in the world of student nurse Matt? My whirlwind of a life never stops. When I returned from Somerset after Easter I was shocked to see a letter from the Student Finance Support (Worcestershire County Council) explaining that as a student returning to Higher Education in September 2007 I would only get a maintenance loan for the first and second years of the degree course at Salford University and would only be eligible for the full financial support (i.e. fee loan/maintenance grant and maintenance loan) for the third year. I couldn't believe it! That wasn't what they told me when I phoned the local LEA last year - before applying to do the course through UCAS. When I spoke to them last year I was told that a diploma in nursing was classed as a HND (Higher National Diploma) and it wouldn't affect the funding I could get for a degree course!

I phoned the national number for the Student Finance Direct company and explained the situation and letter content. I was told that I could actually get a fee loan/maintenance grant for the first and second year, however, it was at the discretion of the local LEA. I phoned the local LEA and explained the whole situation, the letter I had received from them and the phone conversation I'd had with the Student Finance Direct advisor. The local LEA just told me that their decision was final and that was that!

So, I am now in a bit of a pickle! I have an unconditional offer for a place on this degree course, which I accepted. I have spent over five hundred pounds on the deposit and first months rent for a student flat in Salford. I have to leave the student nurse house I am in when I complete my nurse training in August. I have loads of projects and potential business projects set up in Salford for September this year. However, as it currently stands I will have to pay the three thousand and seventy-pound tuition fees for the first two academic years myself! I have just managed to save the four hundred pounds for the removal van. Then I have to save around three hundred pounds for my NMC registration and RCN membership once I qualify as a staff nurse, and a further one thousand pounds to last me the first month or so in Salford until I get part time employment and projects set up!

I have just written to the Student Finance Direct and the Worcestershire LEA to appeal against their decision regarding my funding application. All I can do is cross my fingers and wait and see. However, in the bigger picture sense, if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. Even if I don't get to do the degree course, I will still move to Salford. By heart and experience I am a businessman who has run many small to medium sized businesses, so I am sure I will still be able to set up an integrated medical centre, whether I do this degree course or not!

I am in the process of trying to get a couple of papers published. One is a re-work of a psychology assignment I did in the second year of this course on Illness behaviour and Relationships that got an ‘A'. The other is an assignment I did at the start of the third year as a literature review on Early Warning and Patient At Risk Scoring Systems as part of a Problem Based Learning (PBL) presentation. It got an ‘A-‘ and the clinical findings are of such significance I feel it is of value to publish. I also feel that as a practitioner, who wishes to have a successful career and also undertake research at some stage, it is important for me to get good work published. I have already organised and set up health promotion and education display stands for several events. I am in the process of setting up a smoking cessation drop in clinic once I have completed the training with the PCT. Now is the time to get work published to establish myself as a serious and dedicated practitioner.

On a more positive note, the second day I worked for BUPA (the week before Easter week) I met a bank nurse who I was rather attracted to. She has very similar interests to me in the area of complementary medicine and therapies. So when I went in the following day - she wasn't in - I left an envelope for her full of information and notes on complementary therapies. She sent me a text message on Wednesday evening (of this week) telling me that she had got the envelope and thanking me for the information. She was at BUPA yesterday (Thursday) when I was there working and I was able to speak to her briefly - we were working in different theatres during the afternoon. I was instantly attracted to her the first time I saw her. This was further reinforced as soon as I knew that she had an interest in complementary therapies. So I sent her a text message after work yesterday asking her if she wanted to go out sometime - to talk further about our mutual interest. She suggested that we could meet up sometime to go for a walk on the Malvern Hills - an amazing place for walking. Obviously I am not going to read too much into it. After all there is still a 90% chance that I will go to Manchester once I have qualified as a nurse in August. Plus I am a very shy and quiet person when it comes to women. In addition to that, although my professional life has always been extremely successful, my personal life is closer to the chaos theory and a little bit of a nightmare - especially when it comes to relationships! I never stay in one place long enough - due to my determined drive of career, projects and various businesses - which also compounds my relationship problems. However, even if nothing develops from the relationship with this nurse other than a good friendship, that is the important thing, because friendships are very precious. But she is very beautiful and intelligent, with a great personality!

Anyway, I am going to finish now. If anyone knows of any organisations that offer scholarships for tuition fees for degree students doing complementary medicine courses, please let me know. I have already contacted Salford University to see if they have any ideas of alternative sources of funding. If it is meant to be then I will find a way. I will blog to you all again next week, to let you know how my first week as a final year student nurse is going in a busy NHS theatre department.

Until next time..............have a great weekend all!

Matt.

 

---

Subscribe or spread the word: