6 C’ing my way through Nursing – Care

Care. Such a little word with such a huge meaning. My last post about competence/incompetence was a little downbeat I admit. I don’t really feel much better this week, as other things have happened that have made me feel more … Continue reading →

Social Media…Friend or Foe?

From the very first day of becoming a student nurse, we are told/advised/urged to be extremely cautious with how much and what type information we share on social media sites. Stories of social media gone bad are thrown at us, alongside guidelines, recommendations and code of conducts to adhere to. It all makes sense of course, as students entering a profession we have to behave in a certain manner…but really…is it such a big issue?

Now, I don’t agree with posting naked pictures of yourself after a heavy night out covered in puke. To be fair, I wouldn’t do that whether I was a student nurse or not but I appreciate that some people would find that funny and like to share it. I’m also not the type of person to post my address online nor intimate details about my life…but others would. I completely understand that there is a need to make ‘appropriate’ conduct explicit and I think universities/organisations are perfectly right to be cautious and outline the pitfalls of social media. I guess I only object to the ‘all or nothing’ mentality of using social media. In other words, the assumption that as student nurses we are either going to go all out and share every inappropriate fart and boob online or otherwise, completely exclude ourselves from a huge part of modern society and become social hermits.

Yes..there are student nurses out there who forget what professionalism and confidentiality means and there are also those whose privacy settings are as lax as a pair of old boxer shorts … not good if you don’t want your friend’s cousin’s dad who works with your mentor’s sister to find out how horrid that particular shift was. We also have (and I have been victim of) the not so pretty side of social media; some sites can be a perfect platform for intimidating or ‘pack hunting’ behaviour which is a no lesser form than verbal or physical bullying. This often results from the right to ‘freedom of speech’ which often replaces common sense and tact and leaves a permanent trail of opinions online that may not be particularly conducive to becoming a caring and compassion nurse. Moreover, the  accessibility of social media sort of means that you are damned if you do and dammed if you don’t. For example, you may choose to not speak to someone in class because well, you can’t like everyone, can you? But…what happens if you don’t accept their Friend Request? Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnn. Catastrophe!

However,  I am a HUGE fan of social media and in general, is most definitely my friend. Not the least because I find it educating and insightful. It broaden my own views and challenges my opinions. I may not like some of the insights given but that’s ok. In contrast to ‘real’ life I can block those opinions and not have to continue to deal with them and have them shoved at my face like a wet fish. If it wasn’t for social media I wouldn’t have had many of the opportunities I have enjoyed this last year or so. I wouldn’t have found the essay competitions that I eventually won; to blog for a national nursing magazine; to get involved in lots of conferences and events; and most importantly  I wouldn’t have ‘met’ some incredibly inspiring and lovely fellow student nurses online…who have frankly proved themselves to be invaluable in keeping me sane thus far and on occasions have been much more understanding than some of those people closer to me.

Social media is as much of a support and professional network as a social network…maybe even more so and I don’t think enough credit is given to it. So, if I could give any advice to any student nurses out there, it would be:

– Don’t be afraid of using social media – it’s the modern way to network! Get involved in whatever form you want. You will be amazed how many doors open if you just engage.

– Do make sure your privacy settings are always high to make sure you only share info with people you want to share it with.

– Have it in your head that any information you share online will be permanently stored somewhere and may come back and bite you. Will you want that particular comment/picture/quote/article on ‘This is Your Life’ in 10 years time? With your granny watching? No? Zip it then and keep it to yourself or save it for face-to-face conversations with your closest.

– Share your successes and give others something to aspire to. Who doesn’t want to be a leader? But more importantly, who doesn’t want to know that great things do happen with hard work?

– Remember to be professional and not air your dirty laundry online…. no-one wants to see it…and if they do, the internet is not the place for it.

– Do read the policies and guidelines on social media from the RCN, uni etc… and make sure you understand and follow them. Ignorance will not be accepted as an excuse!

 

 

First Day of Second Placement

Can’t really remember if I have mentioned it before, but even though Nursing is now a degree, student nurses do actually spend 50% of the course in practice. Working. For free. I wish people would give the whole “too posh to wash” and “too academic to care” rubbish a bit of a rest. It’s a bit boring now and achieves nothing. Student nurses nowadays do more minimum training and more learning than ever. 

I digress.

As part of placement, we are assigned a mentor. Our mentor is always a qualified nurse charged with teaching us nursing skills (not just clinical skills) and ultimately responsible for deciding whether students are fit and able to progress to the next level of nursing or not. Each week students must complete at least 37.5 hours. Yep, that’s full time work. In general, student nurses should work the same shifts as their mentor or at the very minimum 40% of their hours must be with their mentor.

So (I’m getting there…I do have a point, honest!), whilst most of my fellow student nurses started placement on Monday, I had to wait a little longer, until Thursday, to start placement. My lovely mentor wasn’t working until then and because I’m doing long days (14 hour days) with her, I don’t need to work as many days to make up my hours. So there you go. The time finally arrived! Yesterday I completed my first 14 hour shift of my second placement.

As per the norm, I can’t say exactly where it is due to confidentiality but in contrast to my previous medical placement, this is a surgical placement. Faster pace, more staff and well…just different. But brilliant. I noticed a few of things as soon as I got to my placement.

1. I am now much more confident to be wearing my student nurse uniform. I sort of feel like I deserve to wear it now…like I have earnt the right I suppose! Not that it ever felt wrong to wear it but it didn’t feel natural at first. It does now….and I love it! I’m not really sure why that is. Maybe I’m more confident in general, or maybe the last 9 months have proven to me that I CAN do this and I now feel more secure in that knowledge, or maybe it is the fact I have lost over 16lbs in weight and my uniform now fits better, or maybe it is because my uniform has now been washed 100 times and no longer feels like cardboard! I’m not going to over-analyse it too much (as you can probably tell). It feels good and that’s that.

2. I have remembered things from first placement and lectures. Nursing education (and Nursing in general for that matter) is so so intense. It is a hard course and it’s frustrating when people underplay just how difficult it is. There is so much information to remember and it is undoubtedly overwhelming. So imagine my surprise when I realised that I actually remembered much (not all) of what I had been previously taught. Now…to build on that and learn more! Hopefully it won’t be ‘one in, one out’ when it comes to facts and skills!

2. I’m much more assertive. My previous placement was 10 weeks long. This placement will be split into 2 completely different areas with 5 weeks in each area. 5 weeks doesn’t leave me with a lot of time so I’m determined to really seek out every chance I get to learn new skills and I’m no longer scared/worried to ask.  I don’t necessarily mean going on spokes all the time but definitely jumping at the chance to do new things, learn new skills and develop existing ones, and just in general, get involved as much as possible! Just in case you think I’m talking in riddles and you are wondering what the heck a spoke is… spoke placement = time spent away from the main placement on a related field. This gives students more of an idea of multi-disciplinary team working involved in the care of a patient. For example if on placement in a ward specialising in diabetes, a student could potentially do a spoke with a dietitian, a diabetes specialist nurse, a podiatrist etc. Thankfully, my mentor seems to ‘get me’ completely and understands what I want to get out of placement and is already very kindly on the case.

[Serious geek alert]

Talking about people understanding me or ‘getting me’. Am I the only person out there who loves Eurovision? I realise it was a while ago but the reason I mention it is because I have the whole compilation on my iPhone and I listen to it all the time. It keeps me sort of sane. Though I appreciate the irony in using Eurovision and sane in the same sentence. 

I like singing and dancing along to songs I don’t understand the words to. I don’t let language get in the way of a good tune! I take after my mum. Also, I don’t really stop at Eurovision…I’m a genuine lover of Europop. Join in! Here are some of my favs! 

509 million hits on this surely means I’m not completely crazy?! I partly blame my zumba class for this one…

Eurovision 2013… erm….I like it and that’s what matters.

A German man-band! what else is there to say? I understand the words to this one…and I don’t mean the English words at the end. Don’t know how I found it. YouTube special!

I won’t sell myself short…sorry

What a wonderful day! Today I volunteered at the Bupa Manchester 10K for The Together Trust (that’s the same charity for which I did Supermarket Superheros, and of course, my skydive). My job today was to cheer as loudly as possible for those running and it was such an incredible atmosphere. I’m not entirely sure how many runners took part but the run’s website tells me it is around 40,000 and I believe it! People of all shapes, sizes and ages, most running for charity, some running in fancy dress – such an inspiring, energetic and vibrant day! Makes me want to sign up immediately for next year’s run! (Registration is already open by the way…Bit keen…!)

If you haven’t already noticed, I love being involved in lots of different things. People often ask how I find the time to fit it all in but if I enjoy it, it’s very easy to fit everything in. I just make time. Simples! I like keeping myself busy. I go to uni full-time where I’m a course rep, also now a Student Quality Ambassador in Healthcare, I write this blog (sometimes), I write my monthly Student Nursing Times blog, volunteer when I can, attend fundraising events, work as an Outreach Ambassador and sometimes, I even enter essay competitions for fun…and sometimes, I even come third!!

That’s right! I randomly entered an essay writing competition by the College of Medicine in London and somehow, the judges liked what I wrote and somehow I have now been invited as a VIP to attend their annual conference in London to be presented with my winning prize and certificate. I am SO proud! They will even display my essay for people to read and such…wooowwweeee!

Now, we all know how much I love writing….and we also all know that I am without a doubt very academic, and that I enjoy it and that I do go out of my way to find things to research and write about. However <change of tone from jovial to serious and slightly offended> I do take exception to people prejudging/assuming/concluding that this very fact means that I do not want to be a “practical” or “hands on” nurse and that upon qualifying I would want to just push pens and paper about on a desk.

No.

I want to be (and I will be) the kind of nurse who always tries.  Who doesn’t shy away from being different. Who wants to improve and who wants to have a voice. Who builds on strengths and never settles for other people’s expectations of what I could or should be. I will not sell myself short. So what if I am academic, are there really people out there who think that nurses cannot be caring, compassionate, kind as well as educated and academic? Or that they should not be? Should I not do what I enjoy and what I am good at because it doesn’t fit with the ideology of a bed-side nurse then? I must have missed the memo which said these qualities were mutually exclusive. Interestingly, the very same people who sent that memo must have missed the fact that I spend much of my free time volunteering/working with and/or looking after people…

We NEED nurses who will push for more, who will seek success and celebrate it when it arrives. How else can we be expected to grow as a profession if we just sit back and let people tell us what to do and what to be all the time? Do we not get enough criticism as it is? Should we not strive for more to avoid that cycle continuing?  

That is all.

“if you always do what you always did, you will get what you always got. To get what you never had, you must do something you never did” – Lots of people