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!

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!

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.......

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.

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!

PLACEMENT'S IN!!!!

The news everyone has been waiting for! I finally got word on my make-up placement...
Urology / Surgical at Bigger-Than-Average General Hospital. (Which is miles away and why all my other placements have been at Pinky and Perky, the other smaller general hospitals.)

Oh and I start on Monday! Lots of advanced warning there folks. I have spoken to the Sister and she certainly acted like she knew the whole sorry back story.

Oh and it's 5 weeks not 6 so I can get back to earning money to go back to camp. Woo!

A First As Student Nurse Blogs Go

If you take a look at the student nurses listed in the sidebar (and I suggest you do). Then all of these lovely people are smart, well adjusted, and get good grades. I on the other hand... fail stuff, mess it up and generally cause havoc where ever I go. Makes for interesting blog posts at least.
So this should come as no surprise....
I've stuffed up my final placement. My fault not theirs. Should really have seen it coming to be honest. So I'm not there yet. Sadly.
I'm getting 6 weeks somewhere else to see if I can pull it back (and maybe put a cap on that problem I have with authority). It'll work out fine. The whole thing wasn't right from the beginning so somewhere new has to be better.
I'll tell you guys when I find out where I going. I put in a vote for acute / critical / coronary care / type places. Don't know if I'll get that but it won't be going back to where I was.

Registration

Oh heck we're in for it now. It getting time for us to register. Course my paperwork isn't in yet and apparently my portfolio is part of the crowd that's getting taken in. I'll be working on it for the next week solid to get it up to scratch. I do not like external examiners. It's not a personal thing, just a 'stop staring at my work' thing.

I'm afraid of being in charge of anything greater than my goldfish. I did not study for 3 years to get this far and to bottle it now!

Now is the time to get off my backside and get going. Time to grow up and pull on the big girl uniform.

Ah sod it 1 more week of being a student won't hurt........