I'VE GOT A JOB and a 1ST!... Year 3 Week 39

Hello everyone,
I'm so so sorry it's been 5 months. To be honest I'm just spiting myself because this is a wonderful resource to look back on and identify my progress, and by not updating I'm almost losing a section of my progression. Oh well, I'm back now.

I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas!?

As you can see by the title, I am far into my 3rd and final year of adult nursing now. And guess what... I got myself that 1st class degree! I can't believe I've done it, but I am so so happy.
During my A-Levels I was very disinterested and not engaged at all, I ended up with 3 Cs. I was so disappointed and felt very much put down, so to actually put a lot of effort in and achieve a 1st class bachelor of science degree I finally feel like I've proven myself :).
Not only that, but I have 4 weeks of placement left, 1 week of uni and then it's all finally over!

This is from my last post, but I thought I'd put it in here too to give some perspective:
8 weeks of uni - done
1 week A/L - done (went to IBIZA woooo)
9 weeks of placement - done
6 weeks of uni - done
1 week A/L - done
12 weeks placement - doing
1 week uni

And then...FINITO!

The modules I've done this year are as follows, along with results:
Nursing Practice 4 (exam) - 87%
Policy, Politics and Nursing (assignment) - 65%
Transition to Qualified Practitioner (Presentation) - 52%
Academic and Practice Enquiry (Dissertation) - a/w

My strengths are definitely exams and as you can see I managed to improve my academic writing to a 2:1 standard which I'm extremely proud of (since this was and always has been my downfall). I got my presentation mark back last week, I'm happy with 52% because it got me my 1st overall, but the module itself wasn't explained very well and resulted in many of my colleagues failing :(.

Even more exciting news...I've got a job!
I got a job on my management placement ward, and then I got a job back home which I've accepted and will be starting at the end of March (so long as I pass my dissertation). I'm really pleased and so happy that I get to move home. The job is on a gastroenterology and dermatoloy ward with respiratory outliers. It is quite acute and I'm looking forward to learning a lot.

I think I'll make a separate post on my interview experiences and advise for others? Hopefully it will be helpful to you all.

Well I'm back with a super long post but I hope you all enjoy reading!

Take care,
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