End Goals and the Basics

Basic Life Support, Manual Handling, Clinical Observations, and Bone.

That’s what we’ve done the past week or so. It’s been a short week, which is- I am led to believe- a rarity when it comes to this course. I’ve been quite glad of this to be honest, it’s been nice to have some down time with the baby: I feel like I’ve been missing out on quite a bit with her. She’s started walking this week, and I’m so glad I didn’t miss it. 

But let’s not get into the whole mum-guilt aspect of what I’m doing. I refuse to open that can of worms until I’m at least a few glasses of wine in. 

So- CPR. That’s basically what BLS is- for the first year at least. It was quite interesting actually, the practice suite we were in had these fancy CPR dummies where they tell you if you’re doing it right. It’s a far cry from the ‘annie’ dummies I trained on as a lifeguard when I was sixteen! 

It’s really tiring! I can see why you need a whole team of people to continue longer than two minutes. The average cardiac arrest lasts about 30 minutes, or until a doctor calls time, and we replicated this in teams of four- ten minutes in we were all sweating. My hands were actually bruised from it! It’s quite daunting really, thinking that now- even as a student- if something happened in the street we have a duty of care to act as we have the training. We have our first MCQ exam in May and there are elements of BLS within it, so I think I’m definitely going to have to revise the whole ‘DRSABCD’ process so I know it properly. 

Manual handling was something I haven’t done before. To be honest, there’s no real way to make it exciting- but the training has to be done before we are allowed out into clinical practice. Anyone working in the NHS in Wales- student or not- has to have their Manual Handling Passport signed off before they can start work. It’s good really, because, in theory it means that everyone is trained to the same standards. Although I am sure out in practice there are instances where ‘shortcuts’ are taken, as is usually the case with things like this. Fingers crossed it doesn’t happen, mainly because I’m imagining it would be daunting to say, ‘this isn’t the right way to do something’ to people who are actually qualified whilst I’m only a student. 

What is interesting though are the ingenious ways there are to move people who can’t move themselves! All sorts of hoists and machinery!

I learnt how to manually take blood pressure.

Honestly it is about as faffy as it looks when someone else does it for you. The concept, when explained, is actually fairly simple. The reality is not- especially when your patient has an awkwardly placed brachial pulse! It’s definitely something I’m really going to have to get used to, I’m ordering a sphygmomanometer online so at least then I can practise at home. We have an exam on that in the second week of May. It’s only a formative exam so if you do get something wrong you can do it again until you get it right, which is a bit reassuring I guess. They just want you to know how to do it, even though mostly in the hospital it’s all automatic machines. 

What I have really enjoyed so far is the nitty-gritty learning about the human body. It’s so fascinating, all the microbiology and anatomy. I understood a little bit before from the access course- but we’ve looked at viruses and different types of bacteria that live in different areas of your body, and what it can do if it gets into the wrong areas of your body. We did a class in the anatomy lab, which was about the skeleton and the structure of bone- we actually got to hold and feel real human bones, which had come from people who had donated their bodies to science after they died. It was kind of weird to be honest, thinking that these were actually inside of someone. Three of the skulls that we got to examine were from children- a one year old, a stillborn baby at full term, and a foetus. That was bizarre. We were told usually these smaller skeletons were usually donated by families who worked in science and medicine, as they help towards research. It’s quite sad really, but it’s also such a nice thing that these families donated them, as it enables people to learn about them. 

I’ve been thinking about our first placement as well. I’m quite nervous, I’ve never done anything like it before and it’s daunting. For my first placement, I’m actually hoping to get a community placement or something like that. The end goal is to work with women before and after childbirth- not as a midwife as I don't want to deliver babies, but after everything I went through with Alys I feel really strongly about honest communication about the mental effects of having a baby and everything else that comes with it. I think it would be a nice ease into clinical placement and what’s required. The main reason I did adult nursing first is because my health visitor and midwife both told me to, they said it’s better to go through and do adult first, and then do a short course after in paediatrics. 

I know there’s going to be placements I don’t enjoy as much as I should, and things I’m going to have to do that aren’t nice, I just have to think about the end goal. 

The Start of Something New

I’m Milly, I’m 28, and I have decided to go ‘back to school’.

This sounds like a bad intro to an AA meeting.

 I first went to university in 2009, when I was 18, and had no idea what I was doing or why- I mainly did it because all through GCSEs and A-Levels it’s kind of drummed into you that university is the next step. In hindsight, I probably wouldn’t have gone, I hated it and ended up working in a bar until 2 years ago. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Now, I did enjoy being a barmaid, and was going through all different types of management training in preparation to make a career out of it, but I reached a point where I decided it wasn’t for me. I was going through some things and took what I can only call a leap of faith- I quit my job, applied for an Access to Nursing course in the local college, and planned to start that in September. I was lucky that Calum (my boyfriend- am I too old for that phrase?!) actively encouraged me to do it, and was really supportive of the whole idea.

Then, somewhat unexpectedly, we found out we were going to have a baby. I emailed the college, who were great, and they said come and do the course anyway and they’d figure out deadlines and extensions etc once I gave birth. Cue lots of tears and tantrums (from me) during this course, but I passed, and got into University. I actually cried at the interview, because my baby was 6 weeks old at the time and it was the first time I’d left her for more than an hour, and my boobs were leaking haha! So, now you know, even if you cry you can still get accepted. She’s a year old now though, and is in nursery once a week when Calum is in uni (he’s doing an MA in some kind of computer wizardry) and then he looks after her mon-thurs when I’m in uni in the days. I’m really lucky to have him support me through this- not many men would- but he knows that it’s going to be a better future for our whole family.   

So, 3 weeks ago I started the Adult Nursing degree. I know, starting in March is weird, but there are two intakes of nurses a year, and I wasn’t able to start in September because the baby was still only 7 months old and I wasn’t ready to leave her just yet. I’ve actually found it better, as the March cohort is smaller, so lectures aren’t packed and you can actually get to know people. The first few days was mainly an induction, and paperwork, and surprise vaccinations for things like Hep B- and meeting people- which is definitely not as easy as it is when you’re 18 and all bond over drinking games! It been really nice though, all the girls in my group are lovely, it's odd though getting used to being around adults again all day every day. But we’ve finally settled into lectures now, at the start it’s mainly introductions to the topics and modules, lots and lots of law and ethics. 

They have to go through everything in the beginning- literally everything- the nursing code from the NMC, the law, what’s expected of you as a student nurse, safeguarding vulnerable adults and children, what to put and what not to put on social media. Honestly not all of it was completely interesting- and some bits did have me questioning what on earth I was doing there, I’m not going to lie. But then this week we’ve gotten more into things like microbiology, and infection control, and anatomy- and it genuinely is fascinating and I'll expand on it in other posts- so I know I’m on the right track. 

As the weeks go on we’ll find out anyway- first exams are after Easter!