Employment!

I've found employment! Woohoo! I finally get to utilise my registration. I firmly pin this on starting blogging again. And not my superb interview skills.

Nursing Shortage? What Nursing Shortage?

Honestly? What nursing shortage?
Since the economy went down jobs have become thin on the ground, nursing included.

Since I returned I have been doing a lot of searching for work.... and finding not very much. Sadly since returning from camp I'm been out of work. Truth is. Wards are short staffed but there is little funding to replace or add staff where needed.

Doesn't help that in this atmosphere having a diploma is not going to get me far.... and no current experience doesn't make that easier.

I'm such a misery, aren't I? Sorry. I do have a new dream though. The camps I worked at... Well they could be doing so much more for those who want to come there. Now I know there are special camps for illnesses and disabilities.... but we have the infrastructure to support more than we do. So why can't we? We don't have the people. And yea I would want that person to be me.

It's good to have dreams.

I'm back!

Hi guys! OK I've been back a week I know but it has taken me all this time to catch up on everything that you've been writing.
So yep my registration came through (even though the forms had to make a round trip to the Midwest). I just don't have a job yet. I'm working on that, promise.

I always said that I would tell you guys, around the time of my graduation, my name and what I look like. So here's the first bit of the integration of my split-internet-personalities...
You can all now call me Claire.

Hey

Hi guys!
I'm still alive but have to borrow the internet from the camp so I'm keeping a low profile. There's been a few accidents along the way this summer and I've had the joys of experiencing the American health care system from the patient side twice. I *heart* nurse practitioners!

I wanted to post that my registration came through!! And I'm now an Adult Nurse!

Woohoo to no longer being a student, although I thought it would never happen at some points.
Love WardBunny

Gone Fishin'

I'm safe in the USA and now recertified in lifeguarding. I'll post sporadically over the summer but mostly I'll be away.

Feel free to e-mail me while I'm away 'cos I'll be behind in everyone's blogs when I come home.

Love

WardBunny

What Have I Been Doing....

Well... I've been busy. No really I do occasionally move from the front of my computer. The sad thing is that although I have all this time I have spent relatively little time working in any of the hospitals.
Agency-wise I've done 3 night shifts. I hate night shift. I hate more night shift in wards where I don't have a scooby as to what is going on. General surgery for example by-passes me a bit, although by the 2nd night I could at least follow the hand over. It was interesting that I got a shift back on my old orthopaedic ward. I loved that place when I was there and yea it even still smells the same. Not bad, I've been on wards that stink to high heaven, just a certain blend of soap and equipment stocked. It's unique to the ward, none of the other ortho wards I've been on smell the same.
In other places - I've been moving out of the flat. It's gone to mammoth proportions. Of course as world's best procrastinator I've put it all off to the last day. Aren't I smart! No wonder people shake their heads when I try to prioritise!
I've got the optician tomorrow for my contact lens fitting. Well you imagine jumping in a lake with a pair of glasses. Oh and if it couldn't be worse the glasses I do have don't react to the sunlight so I'd be guarding the lake without sunglasses. That's far more difficult than it sounds you know.

Not long till I leave now. I'll be there this time next week!!! So excited!

On This Day....

... in 1990 the World Health Organisation passed a resolution to remove Homosexuality from it's list of mental illnesses.

The World Health Organization's ICD-9 (1977) listed homosexuality as a mental illness, and in 1990, a resolution was adopted to remove it in the ICD-10 (1993).

Wikipedia

The ICD-10 then carried the note-

Sexual orientation by itself is not to be regarded as a disorder.

Movin' On

I've not got long left....
My flights for the USA leave on the 1st of June which only leaves ?15 days. So plan....

17th -
18th - Agency Night Shift
19th - Agency Night Shift
20th - Pack Up Flat
21st - Youth Group
22nd -
23rd - Agency Night Shift
24th - Pack Up Flat
25th -
27th - Move out remainder of stuff
28th - Final Youth Group, Clean Flat
29th - Hand in flat keys
30th - Packing
31st - More Packing
1st June! - Leave for camp!

Dang! See I have to leave the flat and pack for camp and earn money at the same time. We need an extra week in May people! I also have to - find a way of getting a medical for less than the £80 my practice charges; see my dentist (lest one of my teeth decides to abscess/get infected/lose a filling); get asthma review; make sure NMC/college paperwork is finalised; pay off all debts to college; see the doc so they can medicate my panic attacks for the next 3 months......

I should probably do the doc / dentist / nurse on one day (like I don't already spend enough time in the NHS as is). Just realised that sticking all that into one day would be some people's idea of hell. It's my idea of freaking boring. I intensely dislike waiting rooms. All waiting rooms.

The dentist's is the worst simply because you find 2 kinds of person in my dentist's practice. Those with no/bad teeth (that includes me) and those who freak-out at the thought of a check up. (I am sacred of a lot of things but the dentist's isn't one of them.) When I'm in pain I want everyone else to naff off and I can be quite nasty about it too so why in the name of the wee man would I want to listen to someone gibbering on about a simple check-up? Last time I went to the doc's I was (almost) rocking back and forth as I was nursing the tail end of a major panic attack. So you can imagine the looks I was getting that day.

I guess that having other people judge you when you walk in doesn't help. Why are you not limping / bleeding / moaning with pain? Excuse me but when did the GP become A&E? I'm also guessing that anyone sneezing and coughing is black-balled.

And Finally.... was out for dinner with the Milkman, Tex, the Artful Hustler, Hollywood, the Milkman's BFF, the Artful Hustler's BFF and Mr. Sensible tonight. Hollywood is not known for a manly sneeze and so when the giant phallic symbol (sorry they call it a pepper mill) got knocked over he started a sneezing fit. The Milkman's BFF yelled at the top of his lungs -
"SWINE FLU!"
And proceeded to try and climb over the partition wall thing in an attempt to get away. He only brought the attention of every diner in the restaurant to our table. Of course we are a big attention draw the 8 of us, our conversations can be on anything from movies and books, to Ann Summers and the dark side of the internet!

I Feel The Need To Spam

SCORE! The best Trekkie meme ever!

Your results:
You are Deanna Troi

You are a caring and loving individual.
You understand people's emotions and
you are able to comfort and counsel them.
Deanna Troi - 95%

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Beverly Crusher - 65%

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Spock - 64%

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Chekov - 60%

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Leonard McCoy (Bones) - 55%

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Uhura - 55%

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Will Riker - 50%

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An Expendable Character (Redshirt) - 50%

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Data - 48%

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Worf - 45%

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Mr. Sulu - 40%

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Jean-Luc Picard - 40%

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Mr. Scott - 35%

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James T. Kirk (Captain) - 30%

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Geordi LaForge - 25%

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Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Test

Anyone else think that Deanna would be a kick-ass nurse?

Florence Nightingale's Museum

I recommend that if you like your history / nursing / history of nursing you need to go to the Florence Nightingale museum.
It has an amazing amount of information on her life and the work she did. There is also an exhibit on Mary Seacole (who is also a total idol of mine!).
We couldn't take photos inside sadly and as I look back over the contents of my digital camera most of the photos really aren't worth cluttering the blog up.

On a similar note the keyring in the photo from the post before is Nurse Bean (it's from a collection). I have a larger one too but I thought since I couldn't be in the photos my keyring could be. That actually turned out better than I thought.

So nothing much more to report. My visa was granted so I shall go to the States!
Only 2 weeks to go!

Sleepy

Someone's put something in my drink. I'm exhausted.
I do have photos.
They are stuck on my camera... except this one.
Did go to Flo's museum - will report on that tomorrow.
Visa was approved so I can go to camp this year!
Right... can I sleep now?

London

Well tonight I board a train and head down the illustrious capital of this tiny isle...

Oh all right. I'm dragging my butt to London so I can attend my interview at the American Embassy. It's a requirement of me getting my visa so I can actually work at camp this year.

I said to Karin over at 12 Hour Nurse that I would go to the Florence Nightingale museum and post photos. So in about 24 hour's time I should have a post up with my London hi-jinxs. Or there will be a news story about a mad Scottish woman getting arrested.......

OINK!

My 2 favourite things right now are:

1. Telling people I'm signed off
   and
2. Making fun of Swine Flu

Yea I know number 2 isn't very grown up but to be honest it is Scotland's biggest joke right now.
It's kinda coming to a big nothing. The two people who were the UK's first cases have sold their stories to the newspapers. And the government has produced the most patronising leaflet since the one about disaster preparedness.

The jokes are doing the rounds as well.... We have the one about breaking out in 'rashers'. Of course you can insert almost any 'oink'ment joke as appropriate. Oh and my current personal favourite has to be any poor sod with hay fever, a cold or an asthmatic/COPD/smokers' cough being let loose on a bus or train. Fastest way to get the annoying person sitting beside you to move.

Worst part is I could have saved them millions on the whole message thing. You know; wash your hands, use a tissue, bin the tissue............
We had a strangely similar message going about nearly 70 years ago.......

Who Da Nurse?

Me that's who!
I got signed off!

Me.... Nurse ....... Qualified...... Finished........ *OK time to quit hyperventilating*




Shit.

The Elephant in the Room

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
By Terry Kettering

There’s an elephant in the room.
It is large and squatting,
so it is hard to get around it.

Yet we squeeze by with,
“How are you?” and, “I’m fine,”
and a thousand other forms of trivial chatter.

We talk about the weather;
we talk about work;
we talk about everything else—
except the elephant in the room.

There’s an elephant in the room.
We all know it is there.
We are thinking about the elephant
as we talk together.

It is constantly on our minds.
For, you see, it is a very big elephant.
It has hurt us all, but we do not talk about
the elephant in the room.

Oh, please, say her name.
Oh, please, say “Barbara” again.
Oh, please, let’s talk about
the elephant in the room.

For if we talk about her death,
perhaps we can talk about her life.
Can I say, “Barbara” to you
and not have you look away?
For if I cannot,
then you are leaving me alone
in a room—with an elephant.

My elephant isn't bereavement but the poem is true all the same.

The Nursing Meme

1. How long have you been a nurse?
I have been a nursing student for 3 years and 3 months.
2. What Dept/area will you never work in?
Outpatients - when the first thing you get told is 'this is where they put the old nurses out to pasture', it really doesn't endear you to the place.
3. What Dept /area would you like to eventually like to try?
ITU and maybe Paeds (but I'd have to retrain for that)
4. What Dept/area are you in?
Surgical urology
5. What is the grosses thing you have encountered?
Nothing really grosses me out. Did once come across a wound I could put my fist into though.
6. What is the weirdest thing you have seen as a nurse?
Glass eyes always strike me as weird, necessary but weird
7. What one piece of advice would you pass on to new nurses?
Take advice that's offered. Ask questions. Don't act like you know stuff when you don't. (sorry that was 3)
8. How would you help retain nurses?
By NEVER saying 'Why are you doing nursing?' to the students
9. Do you have days you wondered why you ever became a nurse?
Yep whole weeks...
10. If you hadn’t become a nurse what would you be doing?
I would probably be a physics teacher

Oh and new blog rec from where this is been lifted - LivingDeadNurse

Brilliant Day

Monday was brilliant. Yes, Monday. Ah when you work shifts it really doesn't matter when the week starts! Not for anyone else really. But it was for me. They relied on the fact that I could take on the appendix and it's 13 theatre list patients and get through the day.

I have been stupendously proud of myself since then. I can take on the world now.

.....

Now I need to go write about it in great detail... for tomorrow.... I'm up at 6am.... baws.

Red

Currently I'm all red, literally. I'm sunburnt. Yes, in Scotland. Yes, in April. Sometimes it does happen! I think I have 1st degree burns on both my arms. If it blisters tomorrow I'll have a real problem. I burn so easily I usually wear factor 50 but it is Scotland in April, I wasn't expecting burns.

I've also re-dyed my hair mostly so that I don't have to mess with the blog header. I was brunette for a month back there but it just wasn't me. I'm back to being a red head. My mother doesn't understand. She didn't get my need to dye my hair purple and have a crew cut years ago. And to think that NO-ONE thought I was gay! Mind you even I didn't know back then.

So I'm red from head to foot! Well not exactly my feet.... they didn't burn today.

Pecking Order

We have quite a few students now. More than 2 and, say, less then 10. We're a big, immensely busy, ward we can take it.
And so the pecking order has developed. You know it had to at some point. Limited chances at the advanced clinical skills makes it first come first served at time. So it's an event that would make Animal Planet or National Geographic happy. We are essentially animals.

And I'm fighting to be alpha female. We have other students doing care management and they only just have their foot in the door. I've been there for 7 weeks now and I have a previous 16 weeks before that, I'm not going to roll over easily. Course that means whoever makes alpha will essentially be the best.

The year 1's and 2's have been on a bit of a steep learning curve, for some this is their first hospital placement. I've been teaching one or two of them a few skills I can do with my eyes shut. Like measuring pre-op patients for TED stockings. Sexy aren't they?
Who wouldn't fancy you in a pair of those!

I hope the claws don't come out too far. Much as the pecking order will fall into place, we need to remember to play nice while we do it. There were 2 drains to be pulled today and 2 management students. One each huh? Nope only one was there quick enough and the other was removed by the staff nurse. It may get dangerous.

Better go get my riot gear on.

I've Found the Love AGAIN!

For those who are eagle-eyed, sharp of brain and generally better at picking up on problems you might have noticed that when things go badly I don't post. (If you didn't, don't feel too bad. I can never see when my friends get haircuts. That's worse!) You really don't need to hear me go on and I don't want to type it as it happens like a bad copy of Nursing Big Brother.
I haven't posted since the first of the month.... It's now the 14th.
I'll leave you to your own conclusions.

Anyway... I'm back and I've found the love I had for nursing way back in the beginning. Which leaves me wondering if I had a period of burnout back there. Personally I think anyone would consider tossing in the towel after 16 weeks leading to failed placement, to be followed by an episode of 'why the fuk am I still doing this' and hitting the wall of 'too exhausted to function' last week.

Weeeeeee I'm gonna be a nurse!! I will be a nurse! I will no longer have to sign 'Student Nurse' after my name!

I'm back baby!