2nd week of Placement...Year 2 Week 44

I want to make sure I drop in on at least a weekly basis whilst I'm on placement :)

I went with the clinical case manager (community matron) today, was interesting! Basically it's a paperwork heavy job. Not something you'd want to do while in the early stages of your career that's for sure!

I had to go back to the house with dog poo and more on the floor...lets just say the smell was stronger than I remembered, I wretched.


Also, I am so so worried that I failed my OSCE. I forgot to handover that my patient needed more regular obs and an urgent medical review due to a NEWS score of 8, I keep thinking that must be counted as dangerous practice... I am so scared to fail because the retake is on my 21st birthday when my boyfriend is supposed to be organising a couple of days away! wahhhhh :'(

Pray for me!

x Alex x

Don't drink children...Year 2 Week 43

I went out last night with friends and I think its fair to say I am suffering the consequences today...

I have told work that I'm available for a late shift tomorrow as it's a Sunday so the rate is good, but I seriously cannot be bothered!!

Back onto placement as of Monday, quite looking forward to it actually. Good sign :)


Hope you're all well

x Alex x

Final Assessment of 2nd year...Year 2 Week 43

So yesterday I had an OSCE (objective structured clinical examination).

I didn't want to write about it right away as on the day of any exam you are over-thinking your performance and I was getting myself into a bit of a 2 and 8 (state).

I will give you an in depth intro into exactly what we had to do:
I had a patient who had ruptured his spleen following a blunt trauma. He had a splenectomy and was on a PCA (patient controlled analgesia) following his op.
I was asked to complete a full ABCDE assessment, pain assessment, form a NEWS chart and handover using SBAR (situation, background, assessments, recommendations).
Then I had to answer questions regarding morphine, PCAs, and a couple physiology ones too.

Airway: is it patent? Any noises e.g. wheezing, crackling etc

Breathing: Resps? Use of accessory muscles? Bilateral inflation? SpO2? O2 therapy?

Circulation: Heart rate? BP? CRT? Urine output? IV access?

Disability: AVPU? Blood glucose? Pupils? Pain?

Exposure: Temperature? Skin appearance? Urinalysis?

A 'NEWS' chart is an early warning system that uses all of your observations to create a score, the higher the score the more abnormal your observations.

So I did all of this, and calculated a NEWS score which I think was right but when you are so nervous in the moment you just never know what you may or may not have done wrong.
I forgot a couple of things for the SBAR such as; regular moniterinng and immediate medical review.

The difficultly with this kind of assessment is you just don't know if you have passed or failed. Because if you are deemed dangerous then you fail instantly.
I don't see why I would have failed but you never know :(

Also I did something really stupid. Instead of taking my time and looking through the file at the doctors review, what medication he was on, what operation he had etc I just ploughed straight on and didn't realise they were there until the end. I'm hoping they weren't of much importance regarding what I had to do...

Only time will tell! I'm hoping I got around 60%.

I'll let you guys know :)

Hope you're all well,
Alex xx

Community Placement...Year 2 Week 43

Hiya guys hope you're all well?

Sorry for being MIA, went home for Christmas and really been valuing my time with friends and family :).

So I started my community placement last week and so far I absolutely love it! The staff are all so lovely and friendly, plus it's so chilled compared to working on the ward. Which is something I'm really enjoying as it's coming to the end of my 2nd year and I don't want anything too demanding before I start my 3rd year.

The thing with community is you care for people in their own home, so it's a totally different environment and often enough; it's not really suitable for medical practice.
For example: I went to visit a woman with my mentor, she was morbidly obese and bed bound and her husband was not one for 'cleanliness' shall we say. Long story short the floor and the husbands feet were covered in dog hair and poo and the dog weed and pooed on cue for us! How pleasant.

The main thing with that kind of nursing is to remember to not be judgemental; people live their lives in many different ways and just because that may not be how you would choose to live doesn't mean it's wrong.

I also cleaned and dressed a mans leg ulcers. They were in such a bad way the exudate was horrendous! Was fun though :D haha.

Anyway I will be sure to keep updating you with anything new or exciting that happens :)

Take care my lovelies xx