The (official) start of placement and advice for you :)

Hi All :)

Well after the last week or so of being rather non-productive, I finally have managed to start sitting down and typing. The strange thing is I rather enjoy it when I get into the work, but as soon as I get distracted by something...anything else, the whole day seems to go down the drain. The other day I got to my desk first thing and thought enough of the note writing, research hunting and draft planning, just write. I managed to get 750words done in less than two hours. So it isn't that I can't do it, it's just I find it hard to get in the right frame of mind to just do it. Maybe the pressure of wanting to have it given in to the printers to bind in 4weeks will keep me going!

Sink or swim!?

Yesterday was my first official start of my management placement, and first day working with my main mentor who will be the one to sign me as fit to practice as a nurse in less than 13weeks time. No pressure then! After speaking to her I found her approach very much a 'push students in at the deep end to see if they sink or swim', then when/if any weak areas arise, that is where the focus will be placed. So in my first 7 1/2 hour shift I assisted with a patient drug round and went on a ward round with the consultant in place of my mentor to take notes of what the nursing plan would be for each of the patients visited. I then communicated this information back to the appropriate nurses who were in charge of those patients. In the third year you are expected to start recognising that it wont be long until you graduate, but for your management placement you are expected to start seeing yourself as a qualified nurse. In the next 13weeks I will be expected to run a bay of my own patients, give handovers to other staff at the end of a shift, prioritise my workload and assist newer staff such as other student nurses to demonstrate leadership ability.

My own unofficial advice

If I were to offer any advice of your placements, it would be:

•  really think about what you want out of it before completing your goals/learning objectives in your assessment document within the first week of placement.
• When telephoning your placement area to introduce yourself it is up to you whether you ask to visit the area before starting placement with them. I like to do this so I am aware of basic things such as toilet and changing facilities, discuss shifts and meet your mentor beforehand. I haven't done this on all placements but I have always asked if they recommend any reading beforehand that will enhance my experience.
• Grab every opportunity with both hands. Work with other members of the team such as nurse specialists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Anyone really who also work with your patients.
• Everyone's experiences will be different, so don't worry or compare yourself to other students. In my first placement I was still very much used to full time working, and learnt that at first I needed to observe and gain the evidence based information before I could then be competent in caring for my patients. 
• Listen to your mentors but be pro-active about your learning. A lot of it is the more you give, the more you can take away.
•  Don't disregard any member of staff on the ward as less important. I learnt my best hospital bed sheet corners and witnessed some of the most compassionate care from HCA's. I recognised that many of the housekeepers who offer hot drinks and meal options know the patients the best as are not there to offer care but someone to talk to.
• Discharge officers are amazing to gain information from. They start planning patient discharge from admission, so you can really learn a lot by shadowing them.
• Communication between teams is key. Without this everything just slows down completely.
• In the second year I became involved with handovers and ward rounds. It's never to early to start and it means by the third year it wont seem as daunting.
• If a training session pops up, ask if you can go along too. I have recently seen an advert for an hour long dementia awareness training session, but have been lucky to have participated in a vascular access refreshers day, helping with a hospital audit, being part of a team who assess wards through observation and been involved in discussion of improvement of nursing documentation within the hospital. There is no harm in asking and what have you got to lose?

Please feel free to ask anything :)

If there is anything else you want to know, please don't hesitate to ask me, whether about placement or the actual university side of things. I'll be blogging until early August so I'm happy to help :)

Until next time, auvoir!x