3 Day Week

Tomorrow I have Immediate Life Support (ILS) training. I've not read the book yet... well I've read bits of it like airway support. And it's a study day on Friday so it's a THREE DAY WEEK!
So what will I do with all this free time? Well finish this damn essay I'm supposed to have finished for Friday.
Hmmm I've only 1,800 words left to go. It cannot be that hard surely? I've already spent a whole day getting the sum total of no where. I will have something written for Friday but what I don't know. Might just splice in a little bit of my Star Trek Voyager fan fiction and see if they notice the difference. I mean how many of them actually have the time to read whole essays when there are 150 of them still to be marked? Wonder if I would get away with that... it's not plagiarism because I wrote them myself but of course to has feck all to do with the subject of nursing. Oh except the bit I set in Sickbay... I complain that I can't write anything at all but then I have a 13,000 word fan fic sitting on my hard drive. It's not finished though and the battle scene needs a lot of work.

Possibily The Worst Download Speed In The World

...Since Dial-Up.

EXCUSE ME 373 BYTES?!?!?!?
I haven't seen anything like that since I gave up working on a 486 processor!

Taken from BBC iPlayer...

YouTube Rec...

I do try not to spam this blog with videos but I had to post this... and it has TJ Thyne from Bones. What else would you want?

So... Where Was I?

I'm 2,000 words away from the end of my final essay. This implies I've not even started it... which I haven't. I've only just remembered that I do actually have an Athens password so that's the references sorted.

My 2 days off are nearly at an end. I'll be working from here-on-out. I'm thinking about being sneaky about my study days. We're meant to have a study day on so many Fridays and I worked the last one. So I might try and get it off some day this week so I'll have a little more time to finish.

So far I've done sod all... not the most productive 2 days.

Theatre

Went to see West Side Story tonight. It was brilliant. I love going to the theatre.

But here's the thing, I've been to shows in London's west end and I really don't remember clapping after every song. Am I just forgetting or do people really do that? Because we seemed to be clapping after every number but the timing didn't really allow for it so we were missing the actor's lines.

On the way out everyone was saying how good it was, while we in true Glaswegian fashion were complaining about the people around us. Like the guy sitting next to me that insisted on critiquing every damn thing DURING the performance! Or the 2 women in front who chatted through it. Or, better yet the woman 2 rows in front with hair EXACTLY like one of the deputy sister's... Damned off putting thinking she's sitting in front of you the whole time... Not actually her but still, I used to think it was quite a unique hairdo (but then what do I know about fashion).

Slow Day

Ever had one of those shifts that just never seems to end?
Man today lasted forever... We discharged patients left, right and centre but we were still not busy. Of course for every empty bed there was a patient to fill it. Only those patients were arriving after we left for the day!

We learned some important lessons.... don't talk about the boss from inside the sluice when she's standing at the station... and when you are the first one to spot she's standing there do NOT, under any circumstances, wet yourself laughing... don't naff off deputy sisters... 'cos it'll come back to bite you on the ass.

We had far too much time on our hands, and idle hands...

Off Duty

I'm making up my own off duty and I still manage to put myself on shift when I am meant to be somewhere else! Idiot!

I really need to start work on my final essay.... it's due on the 5th of December. I've written more in less time so I'm still not worried.

Student Learning Curve

The little first-ies arrived yesterday while I was propping up the dentist's chair. Only difference is I don't have to do that again for the next 6 months. Neither of them has been on a ward before so this will be such a baptism of fire for the poor little things. Oh and then I had 6 patients of my own today to look after and while I almost got everything done (there was this mix-up about dressings). Things just went slower and were more difficult. Not anyone in particular's fault... unless it was mine that is. They have no practice with obs... yet, I'll get them proficient by the end of the week.

It's going to be a steep learning curve for them to bring them up to the performance of our auxiliaries. Not all that far away from mine. The one that is bringing me up to the level of our staff nurses.

Truth is they have shown me in less than 8 hours how bl**dy far I've come. I was looking at their outcomes (the basics they need for this placement) and though I'd been working, what, 3 hours and I had used all of these and a whole load of skills they are yet to learn.

Bookworm (Meme 5)

Kim @ As The Pump Turns tagged me for the Bookworm award. Thanks!
There are a few rules to this...so...
Pass it on to five other bloggers, and tell them to open the nearest book to page 56. Write out the fifth sentence on that page, and also the next two to five sentences. The CLOSEST BOOK, NOT YOUR FAVORITE, OR MOST INTELLECTUAL!

So my book (the nearest, having-more-than-56-pages book) is How Girls Can Help Build Up The Empire (the original Girl Guide Handbook from 1912, a re-print)...
Pg 56 - "You will find all sorts of wonders by stalking birds and watching what they do - how they build their nests or feed their young ones, and which birds lay only white eggs because their nests are in the dark, like kingfishers, sand martins and owls."

Man they like their run on sentences! It has a huge chapter on hospital duties (it sounds a lot like Flo was helping them) and of course on first aid.

I feel the urge to tag...
Cellar Door @ Not Another Nursing Student Blog
cb @ Fighting Monsters
Julie @ Life in the NHS
Not Nurse Ratched
and
Nurse Ratched because she has some really interesting books... one of them must be near her computer

Meme (Number 4) (Screenshots!)

Thanks to Cellar Door I felt the need to disclose my screenshots.
I use 2 different computers so you can have 2 screen shots. This is my parent's computer - a desktop running XP (we have different user accounts). The wallpaper is Oliver Wood (yes, yes Harry Potter!) the Potterpuffs edition.This is from my laptop (running Vista, in case I let anyone forget). Yes I run the sidebar widgets and the areo interface. The wallpaper is a broken blood vessel taken with a scanning electron microscope. I'm quite minimalistic with my icons (the only area of my life where I am like that!) and both computers run Kasperky internet security (although my laptop's is a little broken right now) and yes I live off 4 on demand.

Another Meme (3 in a never ending series)

Stolen from Cellar Door (about a million years ago) and because I'm feeling ... sleep deprived. I started this ages ago and never finished it. I found it today when I was cleaning out my drafts. So things I would tell my 14 year old self that I've learned in the past 10 years.

1) Being single isn't bad and don't go into a rush to try and fix it... since seeing as men never really were your thing.
2) Yes you will make a lot of mistakes but you will survive through all of them.
3) Leave the country for a bit, you'll come back stronger.
4) Realise sooner that men aren't the answer.
5) Move out of your parent's house, the space is good.
6) See when you lose all that weight? Try to keep it off a bit harder but don't care too much when it goes back on.
7) Don't get addicted to Diet Cola. It will rot all your teeth.
8) Just tell people you will never see again that you think they are amazingly beautiful.
9) See a shrink sooner and stop holding on to childhood issues.
10) Don't bother with advanced higher maths. It's a whole world of pain and it's no use to you anyway.

Dentists, or the Last Will and Testament of WardBunny

Still trying to psyc myself up for my root treatment tomorrow. So I spent all day sitting on my backside, watching TV and worrying about it.
I am up to date on Holby, Casualty and Special Victims Unit. I've still not seen the 2 part conclusion of season 4 of House so if I could not die before I've seen that.... Or for that matter before I've finished placement and told our ward's SHO that I think she's smoking hot. (She's like Jessica Alba playing a doctor who loves little old ladies while really well dressed)

Oh and I would love to have a go at winding up the new students that are meant to be arriving some time this week. I don't really mean that. OK maybe slightly, I will be kind and helpful but if one of them thinks they know more than me, then I will be slapping them back down.

I get all the joys of working this weekend to make up for taking tomorrow and Friday off. As much as a hate working weekends I would also like to see this one.

I give my goldfish to my parents, my clothes to Oxfam, my laptop to whoever cracks my passswords (that is not an invite to start now by the way!) and my blog to the greater good (or for the NMC to use as an example of what not to do).

I declare that I am of sound mind *coughs* and that these are my wishes.

Wound Management

See this is something I can get into! Everyday I get chances to re-assess my patient's wounds and alter the dressings if needed. (I still do it under supervision, those alterations, by the way)

I've seen some right stupid combinations that make you question what the nurse was sniffing when they came up with it.
I've seen:
Wounds you could stick your fist into
Infected surgical incisions
Sinuses that constantly leak
Ulcers that lead all the way down too muscle / tendon / bone
Oh and the occasional not infected, clean, well healing site.

But what happens when the wounds are not so easily dressed? When say they aren't on the outside? When, dare I say it, stray into mental health territory?

The uni's shrink is trying to fix me. We've done this dance before and once before I thought I was healed. But for now there's something missing and I can't fill the gap with panic attacks because it makes me a crap nurse.

Support

The ward sister knows I'm gay.

Now that is a sentence I never thought I would write. Not because I was scared but because it's not all together important. I've had that moan before, that it isn't anything to do with caring for my patients. It's not worth the effort telling placements, you are only there for a few weeks after all, and dealing with staff that hate you / dealing with staff that question everything. (*So how do you know you are gay?* No, answering with *How do you know you're straight?* doesn't help.)

She's brilliantly supportive (then again she really didn't know what she was getting when I turned up at the door!).

Being out really doesn't bother me. I really don't hide anything. If asked I will tell you a direct answer but it doesn't come up in general conversation. For some reason people don't ask me if I have a partner. Maybe I just give off those 'I'm single' vibes so no-one dares ask me. Besides I think I've heard almost everything by now. Ah just wait someone tomorrow will say something stupid.....because it's a new day after all.

Fear / Respect

Sister was asking me whither I was scared of the deputy sister. Well yes, I am terrified. You mention that to anyone and you hear muttering along the lines of 'bark' and 'bite'. *If you want me I'll be under the nurse's station rocking back and forth* Then she asked if I was scared of her.....
Oh, cack. There's no good answer here. You say 'no' and it's like she has no real power over you. You say 'yes' and she has infinite power over you because she knows you live in fear.
I may have a pathological fear of anyone in a navy blue tunic (or dress depending on where you are)....

I'm even scared of that picture!

Well I have a 'respectful fear'. You have power. I don't. You've been doing this for years. I know nothing (well next to nothing). Now can I go back to cowering?

P.S. How can you work in a dress? Seriously? Not that you will ever find me in a dress / skirt but come on trousers are so the way to go.

Force Ten Freak Out

They don't happen often but when they do it's usually for not good reason. Today was just one of those days. Simple mistake, leaving something. Then I go have a freak out about it because someone else broke it. See not really my fault? Can I convince myself of that? Not a snowballs chance.

Applications and Babies

I've sent in my applications for a couple of jobs. Wish them luck, they'll need it.
The dentist wants to do some root treatment on my remaining molar. So that will be a fun day off!

AND best of all we've just come off the phone with my brother over in Alberta. His little boy was born just over an hour ago, weighing in at 7lb 1 and a half. He has no name yet but apparently does have a bit of a cone head! So I AM AN AUNTIE!!!!!!!! He'll be first generation Canadian (think he might have dual nationality and hold a UK passport because of my brother and sister-in-law).

Sorry for the random photo. It's a klappar skalbagge (skalbagge being Swedish for beetle). I found it in Ikea (I place I don't totally like) and I couldn't help myself (which explains the huge soft toy camel - Niles - in my bedroom).
I call him Nigel.