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.

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

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!

The Stethoscope Tag

I was tagged by both Little D, S.N. and Undergrad RN for this one.

Here are the rules:

1) Post a picture of your stethoscope

2) Tell what you love about it
3) Tell what you hate about it
4) Tell me what your dream stethoscope would be
5) Does it have a name?
6) Tag all your nursing friends (Including the one that tagged you) and don't forget to leave a comment on their blog telling them that you tagged them!

So they are both about to have a WTF moment.

We don't have stethoscopes as nurses or student nurses over here. Actually that's a little inaccurate. We do HAVE them. We just don't use them so prolifically.

From what I can tell Student Nurses / RNs across the pond (like we do just not as often) use them for measuring BPs and listening to lung sounds and heart rates. We don't commonly take manual Blood Pressure measurements. For some patients we have to but mostly we use digital machines like Dinamaps. OK mine doesn't have a thermometer on the side but it's just the same thing.

I have done manual BPs but not in a long time. When you have say 12 patients under your care and you need obs on all of them it's not really enough time to do manual BPs.

As for listening to hearts? I've done that. I've heard the sounds of mechanical heart valves. But again we don't do any of this routinely.

Lung sounds? Only in my ITU placement so far and really only then because of the risk of Ventilator Acquired Pneumonia. So there you were checking for air entry into the lungs at the top and bottom and any other noises like crepitus.

If you're looking for a stethoscope on the average ward around here you better start by finding the crash trolley. There'll usually be one hanging off of that.

I remember working the neonatal clinic in an outpatient's department as agency one day when I walked into the consulting room and the docs stethoscope was lying on the desk. He caught me staring at it and I said "That's a tiny stethoscope."
"It's for tiny patients." He replied. See because I'm working with adults most of the day it's easy to forget that we start of as little human beings, who need equally little equipment.

Sorry guys I don't have my own stethoscope. I have a pen torch for doing neuro obs and measuring tape for sizing TED stockings if they count as specialist equipment.

I have no-one to tag I guess. Unless of course Cellar Door has a stethoscope moment she would like to contribute?

Quote From A Shift Somewhere

I'm too tired to remember where or when I heard this but......

Nurse: I wonder about those nurses who say they've never cried about a patient...
Nurse 2: Everyone's become attached at one point or another.

They have a point. People get attached. I've gotten attached.


...but what about those nurses who never get attached?

A WEEK!?

Sorry guys I was distracted.....

That last post I sent while I was still in Canada. At that point I was playing with my nephew and pondering my next placement.

Still no news on the placement front by the way. I'm doing agency shifts to fill the gap.

So this is what I have been doing for the last few days.... She has no name but she is definitly a she (Will take suggestions in the comments). She is not a faceless Amish doll... I'm just pondering the embroidery over paint face debate. The t-shirt is half finished, which is why she's only wearing a pair of brown trousers so far. Also she needs to be finished before the party of my un-nameable youth group (yes she's going to be wearing the uniform) (Although take 2 guesses and I think you'll be on to me soon enough). The party is tomorrow evening. I need to get my skates on!

I miss Canada. Actually I miss the entire North American continent. (I'll miss it more when the double stuf oreos run out)



I miss my nephew.

Overtime Pays More Than Money

News Flash: I am NOT shit at my job!

You know that old "you get told it so you believe it kind of thing"? Well getting told in placement that everything I was doing was wrong kinda ground me down for a bit.

Then I go off to earn a bit of money on the wards as an auxiliary and fall into a few shifts at the not-too-far-away hospital (instead of the two-buses-from-my-house hospital where placement is). Better yet I fell into a run of shifts at Coronary Care.

I worked so hard for them but they taught me too. Like Intra-Aortic Balloon Pumps, these things are cool (seriously technical but cool!). They apparently very dangerous too... granted a balloon sitting in your aorta inflating and deflating with every beat of your heart could be dangerous.

They loved me! I did voluntary overtime (they asked and I wanted to er... stick my nose in on the interesting stuff), oh and then there's the extra shift today which came with a side of overtime. So I'm not shit at my job, least they don't think so.

Right when I go back to placement I am going to kick ass. I can so do this.

Workin' Girl

Ah feck....
What started as a simple 7 hour shift turned into a 10 hour shift simply because there was so much work to be done. Not all at once but a constant trickle. A constant trickle with no end! THEN they talked me into a shift tomorrow morning. Excuse me? I know I was meant to be working there on Friday (before I cancelled it). BUT tomorrow that was meant to be my day off.
I could have said no I guess but who could say not to an extra 7 hours! And 3 hours of overtime today!

Also so I can skew the results of a test... fuck, hell, shit, bugger, bloody hell and just to check - dyke, lesbian, gay.... OK I'll explain later......

Coolest Job In The World!

I have found maybe the coolest job advertisement in the world.
Sadly no it's not chief chocolate taster for Cadbury's.

There's a paediatrics hospital that wants adult newly qualified nurses! Man best news all year! You have to be willing to learn.... well I'm willing to put myself through college again to retrain and get my degree if I have too. No I'm not putting the link up, I want this one for myself!

Quotes and News

If a patient is cold,
if a patient is feverish,
if a patient is faint,
if he is sick after taking food,
if he has a bed-sore,
it is generally the fault not of the disease,
but of the nursing.

See old Florence talked sense occasionally. In fact she was at least 100 years before her time with this...

Bad sanitary, bad architectural, and bad administrative arrangements often make it impossible to nurse.

I don't think she'd notice any difference! Of course I think she might have been talking about little rooms and oddly shaped wards. Preferring those long wards with 2 rows of beds, to the more modern 4/6/8 bedded rooms and single side rooms. But hey the perennial problem of bad management seems to prevail like a crop of bad weeds.

Anyway, my last post was no good but it was true. I've had to cancel one of the shifts this week to make way for a dentist appointment. Since one of my few remaining lower molars is aching. So I get the joy of going to the dentist and I lose out on a shift! They won't let me do a back shift or anything. Poo.

I was going to comment on a news story I found but I'm tired and really it's not the most. interesting thing so I offer quotes and a little comment... and a toothache grumble.

Work: It Keeps You Busy

I have my last essay to start and all the write ups for placement but I'm still working.

Ben and Jerry's Baked Alaska ice cream is great when you've just finished a special obs shift.

I have no coherent thoughts left.... sorry.

Why I Haven't Been Around....

Sorry folks. I have been reading, just don't have the strength to type.

Placement has been less of a learning curve than I thought it would be and the last few shifts have flown past. I hope I can say that about tomorrow and the rest of the week. I have been thinking about sleep far too often. When I should sleep, when I'm able to sleep..... So why would I want to spend the rest of my working life thinking like this?

I've not started any of my written work sadly. So I'm starting to fall behind and there's a weekend away starting on Friday and I really should be there too. Ack.... I worked (like for money, for once) on both Saturday and Sunday. It's a run of 12 days without break in shifts.

I promise not to moan anymore about working too much. I did bring it on myself.
And...
I promise to post more, especially if anything interesting happening but according to the news feeds nothing much has happened. Aside from the LHC leaking helium.