10 weeks in...

Whoooo, 10 weeks in already! In an attempt to catch everyone up as to what’s been happening and what to expect, I'll start at the beginning.
A few weeks before I was due to start my course, I still hadn't received my start date! I was getting a bit worried, but phoned the university and discovered they hadn’t received my DBS form. For those unfamiliar with it, it’s a criminal record check. Pretty straightforward, but I had assumed the College would also get a copy. Silly me, you know what they say about assuming! I had my start date and information shortly after that.

I started on a Thursday, and the idea was to have a week and a bit as an introduction, with the main student’s union telling us about wristbands to get into clubs and student happy hours. A few of the group were interested in that, but I wasn’t. As a mature student, it’s straight home for me, unfortunately! We also had a talk from the Nursing student union, the 1000 Lives campaign, Welsh Territorial Army and loads of others. I joined two unions, it was just £10 a year for each, so why not. One was Unison and the other was the Royal College of Nursing. I think that even though both have had a bit of bad press regarding pay strikes recently, I think I’ll only renew with the RCN as they have a fabulous library and loads of online books. I’m also receiving online journal editions, which should come in handy for essays!

As far as lectures go, we’ve had a lot on social media and how not to behave in public. These lectures usually end with how many nurses have been struck off the register for behaving inappropriately on social media. It’s really scary, and I can’t imagine losing my entire career for something so trivial. You would never be able to practice as a nurse again, and I’m sorry, but three years of my life is not being thrown down the toilet for something so trivial! (The fact that my social media accounts remain utterly boring and full of photos of kids and horses is actually a comforting thought!)

Dignity has also been a huge, huge part of lectures. Our first essay is based on this subject, and since the Andrews and Francis reports, it’s at the forefront of practice more than ever. Any potential student nurses/midwives out there, make it the first textbook you buy! We’ve also had lectures on biosciences, law, ethics, you name it. Most of these were very basic introductions to what will come later.

In terms of practical days, we’ve completed our manual handling and violence and aggression passports. These form a part of your portfolio, so they are very important documents. The portfolio itself is a huge document (bilingual in Wales - someone needs to think of the trees…) that has every item you learn in the three years, from treating people with dignity to working competently on your own. We’ve had a patients day which was actually great fun. We washed each others arms, legs and hands, cleaned teeth, fed each other with yogurt and water and made beds. It was very strange to be so intimate with people we hardly knew, and I think it will serve us well to remember that people we look after have been self caring for years and that suddenly having a stranger take over this care would be highly uncomfortable and embarrassing. We have also had an exam (gulp!) in basic life support. This is essentially CPR, in the theory that early intervention will prevent a heart attack, but that we also have the tools necessary to help keep someone alive long enough for proper help, such as paramedics or a resuscitation team to arrive.

And practice. Yes, after only eight weeks we were unleashed on the general population! I think every single one of us was a bit weak at the knees the day before, but honestly, everyone has been so lovely and supportive. No matter what I say, you will worry before going out, but at least feel reassured that we’ve made it, we’ve all been nervous but that nobody has eaten us.  

I’m back in practice next week for three weeks, so hopefully I’ll have more tales to tell soon! (Censored, of course!)