The level of nursing education in the uk

Today we got shown this video to demonstrate how as nurses we should wash our hands.

Oh dear, its all very fun though especially when the tutor had 30 odd mental health students acting out the washy washy dance, I just hope to god that in practice we don't have to wear the funny outfits to wash our hands :P

Its been an interesting week, I got to take a group of people to a live concert on Sunday afternoon. I still cant quite believe that Ive landed on my feet with this job, I get paid for taking part in activities that I absolutely love.  So far it has involved taking clients out for walks, to the cinema, shopping and to a concert in hilly city, amazing :)

Ive been loving our lectures this week as they are preparing us for the practice based side of our course.  We have been learning about psychiatric drugs and I was quite interested that apparently it is not always in the best interests of someone even with quite severe schizophrenia to medicate.  As nurses we have a duty of care to stand up for our patients views. Often doctors will push people on a section  into taking certain drugs without really taking into account the debilitating side effects these drugs can have on someones life. I was quite surprised but also relieved to find this out, as it would be my worst nightmare to have to insist someone takes their medication, when the reason they didn't want to was because of the side effects. Maybe I'm too soft on this though as I am aware that people on sections are often restrained and given depots against their will, but then if they are a  danger to themselves does that make it okay? Hmm its a bit of an ethical minefield, Ill have to do some research into this I think.

They have also started to teach us some of the physical health care stuff that as mental health nurses we need to know. I think the mental health lecturers have been good about this as it was so badly taught in the CFP module, they expected us to get it after one cut short lecture with no extra practice. The module team for mental health seem to have picked up that we are all moaning about the way physical health care was taught and they are teaching it too us as well, even offering themselves up as guinea pigs so we can practice our skills before practising on patients. 

I keep thinking I need to get myself a bit organised, Ive been taking it a little bit too easy really and not really reviewing my studies, I'm trying to rectify that a little bit now so that I can keep on top of stuff. I suppose with the mental health stuff it can be a bit hard to keep on top of it all, They say that for every hour in lectures we need to be putting in an equivalent hour at home. However I cant really see that happening especially when we are in 4/5 days a week for 7-8 hours at a time. I will do some work over the coming holidays and when out on placement, but I think as long as I have enough references in my assignments I should be okay.

My coming assignment is also really worrying me. I have to write an assignment based on a patient I meet in practice. I was hoping to get a placement in any area other than elderly dementia care. But that is exactly what Ive got. Not only am I going into practice absolutely terrified I am going to take bad practice in with me, I'm also not enjoying the reading around it. I curse my experiences in the care home, it really has tainted my expectations of my ability to be a good nurse and my fears about placement. My mentor seems like a lovely guy and I'm sure ill get on great with him as I go about learning to be a nurse, but I cant think of anything worse right now than doing an older adult placement. I'm trying to keep an open mind and reading all of the literature around nursing clients with dementia, but its a shame I cant be excited about it, as before things went crazy at  big scary mansion care home I really used to enjoy working with older adults.

bye bye peeps

just me x

Beaches :)

I actually got up and went to my biology lecture this morning, it was good as I got to catch up with my mateys who are studying for the adult branch nursing,its the only time we really get to see each other now as most of our lectures are concerned with either mental health or preparation for practice and they are branch specific.  It was good to see them as I am aware there is a bit of a divide developing between the different branch cohorts and us mental health nurses have started to resent the way the uni is gearing everything towards the Adult branch. Its not the case across the board but there is one element of our training that just plain sucks. As mental health students a lot of the cohort want extra support with the biology lectures but as disorganised uni goes they forgot to timetable the mental health cohort for the small group study sessions. We kept raising it with our personal tutors that we weren't happy with the way biology was being taught to us and kept getting told it was our fault for not accessing our small groups. Well three months in they have finally realised that they just completely forgot a whole group of students ! So where we've have just the lectures where there are 100+ students, they just speak the information at us, and run. In comparison the other nursing cohorts get these lectures, small groups where they can ask the questions, and then extra back up from the tutors. But come July we have all got to pass the same exam, fair I think not! They have been really apologetic about the mess up but three months into the course is a bit late. Its not even as if we can organize these sessions now as we are on holiday in a week, then straight out onto placement then when we come back we have something like two weeks before the exam. Thanks uni!

 We have also been having the same trouble with the clinical skills side of the course, after placement we all have to pass an practical exam in taking clinical observations. However as a branch we have had one lesson that was cut short by two hours, when the adult nurses have had more than one lesson to make sure they nail the observations. We have pointed out that we have to pass the exact same exam as them after placement but as mental health nursing students we have less chances of practising these skills out on placement. Crazeeeeee or what!!!! We are lucky in the sense though that the adult nurses seem to complain about their module tutors quite a lot, so far I think there has been one mental health lecture that I wish I had stayed away from, they are generally really interesting and the lecturers are supportive of our cohorts inquisitive nature.


Anyways I had lunch with some of my friends from the adult branch today and it was nice as I am actually working a shift with one of them on the weekend at amazing job that I love very very much :) We then spent some time in a local park that has fondly become known as the garden or by some in my groups as the magical park opposite the uni :)

My matey CG passed her driving test a few days ago, well done CG:)  And has bought her own car, as its maiden voyage, we decided to head out of hilly city to a local beach, well its actually an estuary but its as close to the beach hilly city will really get. It was absolutely amazing though quite sad as this town used to be a bustling seaside resort with funfair, swimming pool, and regular train service. I think now it gets a train 4 or 5 times a day and its sadly not well connected to the hilly city's bus services the fair and swimming pool have been replaced by flats and the whole town has one shop and a cafe. We sat on the rocks watching the sun set and I was taken aback, at how amazingly beautiful it was.

It has made me realise how much I miss the sea sometimes it all reminds me of home, though it probably helps that "home" can be seen from here :)

Conversational Woes

So I had some interesting conversations today.

The first one goes like this


JM: Hey nice boss am I going to get the dementia course training, because all other happy care staff at big scary mansion care home seem to be on the course except me.

Nice Boss: I'm sorry JM I didn't order enough booklets for all the staff at big scary mansion residential home, you and the housekeeper are the only ones not on the course yet.

JM but nice boss I am a care assistant at big scary mansion and deserve to be on the course with all the others. .

Nice boss Well you're going to university in January JM and you should get a lot of dementia training in the mental health course.

JM: Um not necessarily and even if I do I might not get it for another two or three years . And Id like to learn  how to deal with the new residents you're bringing in now.

HMM ever feel like you're banging your head against a brick wall.  The situation at big scary mansion is really annoying me now. I started there two years ago and even though I was promised training, its never really happened. The induction pack that every new employee has to complete was finished and handed in in may 2009, to date its never been marked and handed back. I got so fed up of waiting 9 months to start my NVQ2 witch never started that I dragged myself back to college and got an Access to Higher Education Diploma in Health Studies and it seems because I'm willing to train myself then I don't get the paid for company training.
Its not as though I'm even asking for the earth just training which allows me to do my job properly.

Rant over lol

First Post

This is my blog I suppose, I'm not writing it for anyone else really I just find that to get on in my life I need to write things down. I used to keep diaries but going through the expense of  buying a new notebook(it has to be a pretty girly thick thing with a nice matching pen.) only for the diary to fall by the wayside after a few months

Anyway its important for me to write things down and record them as they happen so thats what I will be be doing here. Recording my way through life as a mental health nursing student.
Well that's it for now folks Happy Sunday :)