I feel that I should post as I have neglected my blog for so long!
My placement is going really well, I have only 4 and a half weeks left but have discovered I need to make up another 6 shifts that I owe. I have very nearly finished my Portfolio essay and now it feels the end is in sight! By the end of April I should have all my work submitted and my hours done.
I'm trying to think if we've had any interesting cases recently. There was a little boy who had swallowed a 5pence coin yesterday, his younger brother had put it in the back of his mouth and whilst his mum tried to remove it he swallowed it! We used a metal detector to locate it, but as this method is currently being audited we had to confirm with x-ray. It was in his stomach and not causing any problems so nature is left to take its course. Fortunatly it was only a 5pence piece and not a 50 pence!
We had an unpleasant child yesterday, about 4 years old, who decided to hit me in the face and knock my (new) glasses onto the floor and then kicked me. He wasn't frightened, in pain or struggling to get away, just a naughty little boy who refused to apologise and smiled everytime he was told off. Mum assured us he didn't get away with it at home (yeah right) as he continued trying to hit and kick me as I fitted his collar and cuff (a foamy sling for soft tissue injuries).
The NMC is visiting our clinical area next week to audit the student placement experience/education and I've been asked to work that day, they're also auditing a clinical area I've worked in previously. It will be easy to provide a good report for my current area, they're brilliant, but not so easy for the other. It was a children's hospice that had recently lost its funding, there were a lot of redundancies being made and the service was very under used because of financial problems, it meant there was often nothing to do on the placement as there were few or no patients. I did learn some things, but most of my time was spent doing nothing at all, I think with funding it had the potential to be a very good clinical area.
Showing posts with label Assignments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Assignments. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Major Incident Training
Today was my Major Incident (MI) Training Day. We were split up from our usualy cohort so we were with people we didn't know from the other branches. I was with one mental health nurse adn four adult nurses. When I arrived I was really looking forward to the day, the others clearly were not.
"What a waste of time this is going to be"
"What's the point"
"I'm not going to learn anything"
Not with that kind of attitude you're not. So that was a little disheartening.
We were given a very short introduction, but the day focussed around a theoretical Major Incident, we were given four trigger scenarios for it. We discussed each trigger and answered questions, then the 8 groups took turns to feed back. We were given 3 resources on MI Procedure and the facilitators wandered around to help us. After each scenario we took time to reflect on what we had learned.
The day required rather a lot of brain power, but I found it a really good way to learn. It was by far the best EBL session I have had, and I really appreciated the learning approach. It looked at all aspects of a MI; from driving past the scene of a crash and what our duties were as a registered nurse, to how the scene would be managed, to how the hospital would manage the influx of patients, to how we would deal with friends and relatives and breaking bad news.
I want my nursing career to be in A&E so I anticipate this will be quite helpful, and at the very least the certificate will look good in my Portfolio!
"What a waste of time this is going to be"
"What's the point"
"I'm not going to learn anything"
Not with that kind of attitude you're not. So that was a little disheartening.
We were given a very short introduction, but the day focussed around a theoretical Major Incident, we were given four trigger scenarios for it. We discussed each trigger and answered questions, then the 8 groups took turns to feed back. We were given 3 resources on MI Procedure and the facilitators wandered around to help us. After each scenario we took time to reflect on what we had learned.
The day required rather a lot of brain power, but I found it a really good way to learn. It was by far the best EBL session I have had, and I really appreciated the learning approach. It looked at all aspects of a MI; from driving past the scene of a crash and what our duties were as a registered nurse, to how the scene would be managed, to how the hospital would manage the influx of patients, to how we would deal with friends and relatives and breaking bad news.
I want my nursing career to be in A&E so I anticipate this will be quite helpful, and at the very least the certificate will look good in my Portfolio!
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
I'm an exhibitionist
Oh yes, and we also have another Enquiry Based Learning presentation to, umm, present this module. Whilst I don't like EBL I have to say it has improved throughout the course and I've discovered it does have some value!
There are currently only 10 people in my child branch cohort, we did have 18 when we first started the course and 2 of our current members have joined us from other groups so, more simply put, 10 people have left the group in the 3 years. That was a little off topic (but an ineresting side note with regards to attrition rates), what I was going to say is that each module we have to do an EBL presentation to the group, usually in 2-3 small groups. I really don't mind the presenting at all (I'm such an exhibitionist); we have a supportive group, though some poeple loathe it. This module we are required to choose our own EBL subject/scenario and present it to the whole cohort (adult, child, mental health), about 100 people.
It's not the number of people that worries me, but the type of people we'll be presenting to and the disrespect and rudeness that they have shown our lecturers in past joint sessions.
But you know the thing that really gets me? The Med students, dental students and post-grad nursing students have to do something called PBL - Problem Based Learning... "PeBbLe". It sounds much cooler that "E-B-L".
There are currently only 10 people in my child branch cohort, we did have 18 when we first started the course and 2 of our current members have joined us from other groups so, more simply put, 10 people have left the group in the 3 years. That was a little off topic (but an ineresting side note with regards to attrition rates), what I was going to say is that each module we have to do an EBL presentation to the group, usually in 2-3 small groups. I really don't mind the presenting at all (I'm such an exhibitionist); we have a supportive group, though some poeple loathe it. This module we are required to choose our own EBL subject/scenario and present it to the whole cohort (adult, child, mental health), about 100 people.
It's not the number of people that worries me, but the type of people we'll be presenting to and the disrespect and rudeness that they have shown our lecturers in past joint sessions.
But you know the thing that really gets me? The Med students, dental students and post-grad nursing students have to do something called PBL - Problem Based Learning... "PeBbLe". It sounds much cooler that "E-B-L".
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Portfolio and A&E
Today I'm trying to write my Portfolio essay. It's a 4,000 word essay reflecting on my last 2 years of training and discussing my strengths, my weaknesses and how I intend to develop these when I qualify.
It's due on the 5th of January, and whilst I could write it before then I'm a little worried I'm not going to have ad raft ready for my tutor before they break up for Christmas, and I'd really like not to fail this one. I think I've left it a little bit late! But I definitely needed the holiday, I was quite stressed! I'm only just realising how much more work I need to do in a short time, I hadn't really thought about my tutor not working over Christmas.
I really must get comments emailed to me or something. The lovely Mr Mans Wife has left me several interesting and encouraging comments on older posts that I didn't notice until today. I promise to notice all future comments!
I was thinking back to my A&E placement, the best I've had by far and thinking about some of the things I saw and did there. I think I'll post about that sometime. But two situations sprang to mind today.
We had a mother bring her baby into the triage room. I can't remember the age exactly, but around a year old. The child was alert and smiley.
Nurse: Hello mum, what's brought you to see us today?
Mum: Bobby didn't sleep well last night
Nurse: Okay *makes note* so what is it that made you decide to come to the accident and emergency department? What has concerned you?
Mum: Bobby didn't sleep very well.
The child was very well, alert, smiling, had no temperature, no history of cough or cold. Now I know parents know their children and it's important to listen to their concerns, but there was nothing wrong with this child! The part that got me was her only concern was that he didn't sleep well last night... well what did she think we could do it about it the next day in A&E?
Another day I was out with a LAS crew and we were called to an unwell child with abdominal pain. The child hadn't passed urine in about 12 hours (though that was overnight) and he had a mild abdominal pain and a slight temperature. Now the child looked a little peaky, but nothing awful. They decided to run the child to the local hospital, at which point they ask who will be accompanying them in the ambulance.
Dad: I will. My wife will take our other children in the car and follow us.
... So why didn't you just drive to your GP, Walk-In Centre or A&E in the first place instead of calling an ambulance?
We also had numerous cases of children coming into the A&E department with a complaint of itchy eyes and sneezing. It was the summer. Yes, you've guessed it. It was hayfever.
I do worry about some people.
It's due on the 5th of January, and whilst I could write it before then I'm a little worried I'm not going to have ad raft ready for my tutor before they break up for Christmas, and I'd really like not to fail this one. I think I've left it a little bit late! But I definitely needed the holiday, I was quite stressed! I'm only just realising how much more work I need to do in a short time, I hadn't really thought about my tutor not working over Christmas.
I really must get comments emailed to me or something. The lovely Mr Mans Wife has left me several interesting and encouraging comments on older posts that I didn't notice until today. I promise to notice all future comments!
I was thinking back to my A&E placement, the best I've had by far and thinking about some of the things I saw and did there. I think I'll post about that sometime. But two situations sprang to mind today.
We had a mother bring her baby into the triage room. I can't remember the age exactly, but around a year old. The child was alert and smiley.
Nurse: Hello mum, what's brought you to see us today?
Mum: Bobby didn't sleep well last night
Nurse: Okay *makes note* so what is it that made you decide to come to the accident and emergency department? What has concerned you?
Mum: Bobby didn't sleep very well.
The child was very well, alert, smiling, had no temperature, no history of cough or cold. Now I know parents know their children and it's important to listen to their concerns, but there was nothing wrong with this child! The part that got me was her only concern was that he didn't sleep well last night... well what did she think we could do it about it the next day in A&E?
Another day I was out with a LAS crew and we were called to an unwell child with abdominal pain. The child hadn't passed urine in about 12 hours (though that was overnight) and he had a mild abdominal pain and a slight temperature. Now the child looked a little peaky, but nothing awful. They decided to run the child to the local hospital, at which point they ask who will be accompanying them in the ambulance.
Dad: I will. My wife will take our other children in the car and follow us.
... So why didn't you just drive to your GP, Walk-In Centre or A&E in the first place instead of calling an ambulance?
We also had numerous cases of children coming into the A&E department with a complaint of itchy eyes and sneezing. It was the summer. Yes, you've guessed it. It was hayfever.
I do worry about some people.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Assignment grumbling
I'm currently writing a (bad) ethics essay. This is an essay that I have really struggled with, not because I lack in ethics(!) but we have received little teaching in university on ethical theory and principles which adds to the difficulty in writing this essay and the way in which we are expected to write is not the way we behave in real life. The decisions we make in practice are guided by ethics and by the standards laid out by the nursing and midwifery council, but we do not have the time to stand around critically analysing and discussing each decision we make applying relevent ethical theory (such as deontology or utlitiarinism) and principles (benificence, non-malificence etc). Many of these theories and principles are second nature to some degree, nonmalficence the principle that we shall no do harm for example. I don't know that I would go as far as to say this essay is a waste of time and will have no relvence to practice, it will, but the relevence is from the research I have done into restraint and policy, not because I have applied a consequential theory to the scenario or looked at the level of autonomy the patient has.
I know, I'm just moaning. But as with many of our assignments it doesn't seem to be about furthering our development but more about showing the university we can say all the right things in the right way. What you write in an essay does not reflect your ability to be a good nurse, it's jsut learning to talk that talk.
One of the things I struggled with in the course is how little my opinion is valued in terms of assignments. We have had to write many essays on various topics throughout the course and my opinion is worthless in them if I cannot back up what I say with a reference. I understand the need for evidence based practice, and I'm not denying that there needs to be sound a knowledge base in what we write but it is disheartening to know that my opinion is only worth something if someone has said it already. Where is the room for new ideas? All the references I use, someone had to come up with them in first place.
I know, I'm just moaning. But as with many of our assignments it doesn't seem to be about furthering our development but more about showing the university we can say all the right things in the right way. What you write in an essay does not reflect your ability to be a good nurse, it's jsut learning to talk that talk.
One of the things I struggled with in the course is how little my opinion is valued in terms of assignments. We have had to write many essays on various topics throughout the course and my opinion is worthless in them if I cannot back up what I say with a reference. I understand the need for evidence based practice, and I'm not denying that there needs to be sound a knowledge base in what we write but it is disheartening to know that my opinion is only worth something if someone has said it already. Where is the room for new ideas? All the references I use, someone had to come up with them in first place.
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