Learning Nursing

2006-05-23T17:45:00.000+01:00

Blimey is it really may? Where does the time go?

-->Uni Continues
-->SOS BUS continues
-->Links Continues
-->Work Continues at the hospital
-->driving lorries hopefully over the holidays
-->festivals start soon

Learning Nursing: Yet again months have elapsed

2006-02-15T23:49:00.000Z

Evening, My voluntary work continues - Two gigs so far this week with another tomorrow. PLUS a club night, so thats about 20hours for first-aiding. THEN on top of that I have been planning for the time I teach the kids thats about another four or five hours. PLUS I have also done seven hours for a friend helping them with their youth group. So a full-time job then! ! ! (I even have their washing going around my machine as we speak)

This however will stop! Full-Stop.

Back in the real world (out-side voluntary ambulance services) I am just keeping my head above water with my university work. OK so I am currently just about up-to-date but definatly not roaring ahead with any course-work. Essays MUST be written, and my placement starts next Monday. Voluntary work must decline!

I know when things become to get hectic as it shows in my health.. (both physical and mental) and I have become a profanity machine again.

Yet again months have elapsed

2006-02-13T17:20:00.000Z

So more months on and what has happerned?
Well we are nearing the end of our Critical Care theory module and are soon to go out into the big wide world of placement again. I continue with my voluntary work (did the Kerrang and NME tours, Darkness and other gigs) and ambulance course. Having observed on a AmbuFast last Friday. This week I am doing two gigs at univerisity. Then I am going to be on placement and trying to write an Essay.

Not been anywhere exciting I am afraid, just the odd night out here and there. I miss my travels to far away places to see friends.

My Laptop seems to be falling to peices. The Hard Drive keeps making some really worrying sounds so I think it might be about to go horribly wrong. Need to get a new hard drive I think. I write this on my old dusted down Elonex PC. I actually think I could do with a new laptop but money is scarce at the moment. And I am going to have to think about cars in September.

Oh Well.

Night All

Nearly two months on

2005-12-27T16:09:00.000Z

Well its been a very busy time throughout November and December.

I have been on placement in my district general hospital, passed the placement which is ACE, Written an essay on "Empowerment" handed that in (await fail result) and had christmas.

I also got a tax rebate for lots of money which is nearly all gone now.

New year will be spent down south somewhere.

New Years resolution is to keep an open diary online.

Cut-Backs

2005-11-01T14:19:00.000Z

As Hospitals across the country are currently under financial strain (not a new phenomenon) in their wisdom they have decided to cut back on bank/agency staff, some of this means:
Depts may not be covered with adequate staff, and workers have been told they're not allowed more than two bank night shifts a week!

This means no more jobs for me! As the area where I do lots of work is currently not being allowed to cover un-trained staff shortages!

NEW PLACEMENT

2005-11-01T14:11:00.000Z

Started my next placement yesterday.
After getting home at some god unearthy hour and sleeping for eight hours I was off in my blue uniform for another 12.5 hour day on the wards.

I was slightly nervous to begin with but that was soon settled when I was set off to shadow the ward sister!, also the lady who Interviewed me all those many months ago before I started the course!

Was a quiet day will the normal compliment of staff so that helped make things run smoothly (well as soon as we'd got the night staff to come back in after returning home with the keys to the drugs trolly by mistake!)

Last night after I'd finished I popped upto the Emergency Dept's where some of my fellow students are on placement at the moment. They seemed to be having fun which was ace. Then off to the fireworks where I had aggreed to put in a few hours First-Aiding.

Finally at about 10pm I got home to tea then bed.. I am shattered today!

Manchester

2005-11-01T14:10:00.000Z

Manchester was fantastic!
Went to see my brother then off to a mates house for a pre-party warm up.
Then off to town to another friends birthday bash.

Had a fab time.

CONFIDENTIAL

2005-10-28T02:27:00.000+01:00

I oftern refrain from writing in my blog because I worry that I may overstep the mark. Maybe I allreddy have? Tonights another such occasion where I will refrain from puttin my feelings and thourghs/experences down, This is why my blogs not as exciting as others I read.

Went to my little first-aid uni group tonight and had the useual back-stabbing going on, (FOURTEEN HOURS!) <-- just a dig! There is serious favortism going on, as well as self promotion. One such example is the girl in-charge of the group who's (in my opinion from what I as an outsider see) Self appointed herself as a Team-Leader. Now lets look at this:
Me = Student Nurse, MANY MANY hours with the group, AED, Leadership Courses, Older, Experence with the venues, etc.. etc..
This Lady = 14 hours with us and a basic first-aid qualification = Self-Promoting for kudos

Now whilst I am not at all looking for promotion, I strongly belive this person does not posess the skills or qualifications for the title "TEAM LEADER"

Handcuffs

2005-10-26T08:29:00.000+01:00

Nothing of any clinical significance last night, however I was astonished at the numbers of people who'd spent some serious time and money on preparing their costumes, we had my winners:

HEMS Doctor, with full orange jump suit!, Very Good!
Riot Police man, with proper Plasticuffs, (and used them - good job I had my tuf-cuts)
Some amazing nurse types with VERY short dresses!

There was also the usual hundreds of pairs of scrubs littering the place, some Builders?, Cowboys? Men-in-Black? and many other none-emergency related costumes.

And for the record the "AMBULANCE PARALYTIC" there had to be 'freed' from his handcuffs!

Ambulance Training

2005-10-25T20:00:00.000+01:00

Last night was Ambulance Training... SO incredibly boring, none of us learned a thing!
All the uni people went for coffee afterwards and eventually rolled home at midnight.

Tonight I am on duty 2100-0200 at University, its 999 night (lots of pritty ladies in nurse's outfits, and scary witches with handcuffs) Only two of us on duty (normally 3) so we'll see what happerns.

Bank Shifts

2005-10-24T14:15:00.000+01:00

Saturday and Sunday I worked in A&E doing my little HCA role.

Saturday saw a twenty somthing die, probably because of a clot on the lungs. Sunday saw a twenty somthing live, even after fully stopping breathing (god bless narcan)

Funny mix really, saw the very old and the very young, the very plain and the very odd. Its oftern challanging going from the blasted off his face on drink and drugs to the little old lady with a sore leg and changing the way and language you use with varying patients. (drama A-level does come in handy here)

Had my Flu-Jab (which gives the department a fiver!) and got to go home early last night due to only having two patients in the department.

Ambulance Training tonight, which should be interesting...

Placements

2005-10-20T18:42:00.000+01:00

Found out today my next placement (that is the one after the one I start next week) and it is as I had hoped Accedent and Emergency for seven weeks! yay! -My friend has just started working there and so I cannot wait. I am doing helth care assistant shifts there this weekend, then will see if they need me next week so will tell them all about it.

Today was a compleat doss, what with it being the last day of our Enduring Care unit. we had a bit of a consolidation session and then a form to fill out evaluating the teaching. (obviously as you have to put your name on the sheet I ticked excelent for everything, well nearly everything)

Tomorrow I am supposed to goto my next placement (that is the one next week then) and say hi/pick up my shifts for the forthcoming seven weeks. Looking forward to it actually.

Off to university for Links now

Bye bye..

Lectures - worrying

2005-10-19T23:08:00.000+01:00

Worrying today, Had a lecture that many people seemed not to know the answers to the ladys questions, For example a simple question: "how do you change miligrams into micrograms" now this is important as if wrong you could give a dose 1000 times larger than prescribed, bearing in mind we have done 14 weeks on placements now, and people have (under supervision we hope) been giving drugs out. Another worry was peoples lack of awareness of what basic organs like the heart do on a basic GCSE level! - Oh dear.. Quite Fightening.

Then we had IPL (that's Inter Proffessional Learning then) with a Doctor (student) and Learning Disability Nurse (student) it was again pants!

Computers sort of back now, and my friend assures me he has kept a back-up of the original files so that's good! -Will go with my NEW 200Gb USB2 Hard drive and have him copy the nescercery files.

Compissters

2005-10-18T23:42:00.000+01:00

The Drugs post will have to wait, as I am not finished with writing it yet..

Well my computer managed to get a virus from somewhere, then the virus checker went screwy, then I needed to do a complete re-install of windows etc...

My friend copied the entire (virus ridden) software for me, then re-built the computer, then I “lost” the copy of all my work from last year, and virtually my life…!

So cue me running at 1950 to PC world for a 200GB external hard drive.

THAT’LL TEACH ME NOT TO BACK UP MY COMPUTER!!!

AGHHHHH!

(I’ve lost all my work from last year!)
(Plus many many other important things)

Dealing with Intoxication

2005-10-17T16:03:00.000+01:00

So after many conversations over the weekend I have come to the conclusion that to deal with the person found/presenting to a First-Aider with Alcohol intoxication we need to firstly rule out any other problems like 'no history or physical evidence of head injury, diabetes or history of seizures, no history of taking illicit substances or prescribed medication - physical examination found no injuries' Then if they have been observed for two hours, had a damm good puke, and are able to stand talk and answer questions sensibly they can go on their merry way.

My Ideas of drugs to follow!

Drink ?drugs

2005-10-16T04:01:00.000+01:00

One of the things that one comes accross working on the project I've been on tonight is the people who find themselfs in a state through drink or/and drugs on Friday or Saturday nights.

This may or may not be their fault.

It is difficult from a First-Aid point of view on what to do with these people. In the first instance you sober them up and attempt to make contact with Friends or Family who can then work with you to decide the best cause of action to take. The options for us are:

Let them go home with friends/family,
Get them home to friends/family, (if there are any, if not home alone)
Take them to A&E/Call an ambulance
Call the police.

A problem with this is that someone who hasnt had much to drink but belives their drink to have been spiked (or you can see that somthing isnt quite right) provides a conundrum, especially if attempts to call friends/family fail, and that they for one minute talk/walk fine then drift into a kind of psychotic state in another moment. I am aware that this can be for a varitey of reasons though and you must not jump for the first reason you think of (i.e. blame it on the drink or possible drugs straight away) If however they are taken and walked into minors at A&E then I know from experence they are likely to be seen and sent home (its a long long walk to the hospital and not a free taxi ride, oftern people will have no money with them)

So, if they are alert enough to stand and maintain their own airway, generally improve, hold a conversation and live close the crew will take them home. I am sometimes weary of this practice because their state can (and I have seen) change, I am sure that they will be fine but you cannot gauntee that they will not take more at home/get worse.

But hey ho, the worlds a wonderfull place.

Hair Cut

2005-10-14T23:19:00.000+01:00

Whats the verdict then?

I got bored and had a crop

I have also made an attempt at tidying my room, I have moved my bed to where my desk was under the window, and my desk to where my bed was!

I could do with lots more shelving, and a serious sort out and filing away of papers which are stacked up in a pile in the corner.

Went to the dentist yesterday, had fillings done WITHOUT anasthetic, after my friend had a bad reaction to the anasthetic I declined one.. Wasnt that bad really - I'd encourage everyone to try it:-)

My Computer has a Virus thing going on, after I lost some files I freeked out and phoned a computer minded friend on his 999 hotline, he advised me to "Turn the laptop OFF now! - and remove the battery!" - so as not to loose all my university type work. Which I have faithfully done. So I am using my mothers computer which is really bear on the programs front, a copy of windows plus 'word' is about all its got on! Right Bed is calling me, I am rarther tired now. and it's going to be a long day tomorrow not finishing till 3am. I think I will take some photos in a Random-Reality fassion

2005-10-14T22:49:00.000+01:00

From a Paramedic:

suicide

please don’t do it

So, you've decided to do it? life is impossible, suicide is your only way out fine!--but before you kill yourself consider these facts

Suicide is not usually successful.

So you know a guaranteed way?

ask the 25 yr old who tried to electrocute himself.
he lived, but both his arms are gone.

You'll jump then?
Ask John, he used to be really clever, had an engaging sense of humour,until he leapt from a building.now he's brain damaged and will always need carers, he staggers, has seizures, lives in a fogbut worse of all, he remembers how he used to be.

So you'll take an overdose?
Ask the 12 year old who now has extensive liver damage from overdosing on paracetamol.ever see anyone dying of liver failure? they are yellow,it's a slow painful death!

A gun then?
Ask the 24 year old who shot himself in the head.he now drags his leg, has a useless arm, no vision or hearing on one sidehe lived through his "foolproof" suicide

You might live through it too but...
Who will clean your blood off the carpet? scrape your brains off the walls and ceiling? someone has to do it and commercial cleaning companies may well refuse. Who will cut you down from where you hung yourself? or identify your bloated body after you drown?
Your father?
Your mother?
Your sister?
Your brother?
Your own child?
The carefully worded 'loving' suicide not is of no help those who love you will never completely recover, they'll feel regret, unending pain.
Suicide is contagious! look around your family, you have other choices, there are people who can help you through the crisis:

Call a hotline, call a friend, call a doctor, call a hospital. They will offer you hope, maybe in a call this weekend. What you are seeking could well be a day, a month, a minute away. so you dont want to be stopped?
You still want to do it?
Then i may see you later when i take you to a specialist unit, or psychiatric ward to work with what you have left.
This isn't the way to go. You may think everyone will be better off without you, but have you ever seen a family who's lost a loved one to suicide? They are messed up emotionally.

Please!! seek help.

End of the week

2005-10-14T22:46:00.000+01:00

So another week down, and only one week left of this unit. (then a weeks 'holiday' which I really need to put in some serious effort on the Essay front) Then it's seven weeks in Medicine for the Elderly ward! Yippy...

Am out and about on Saturday night 'playing' first-responder in the City Center, and I have an observer with me which will be.. fun.

Right - A coupple of posts I've been asked to bung on my Blog:

Same old grind

2005-10-13T13:09:00.000+01:00

Well, nothing new really here.

I have a study day today (which means a lie in till midday catching up on lost sleep) and at some point I need to: Tidy my room, Write a reflective peice on my last module, find the info on my next essay.

But first, a bath (or maybe I'll shower) then a trip to the dentist as I broke a tooth on Tuesday.

I am off doing my first-aid in the city on Saturday, and possibly tonight I await an e-mail by 2pm

T'ra

Part Time Work

2005-10-08T02:23:00.000+01:00

ok this was so so so funny -

Working tonight...

Man came in A&E intoxicated with head injury:- Under Arrest with the company of two rarther tall coppers.

They took him to the toilet and stood outside whilst he went about his buisness. - we Heard an allmighty Crash!

He had climed onto the toilet, onto the sink, used the soap dispenser as a step climbed into the roof space above the false ceiling and obviously put a foot wrong and fallen out of the roof!

He was promptly advised of his rights and told he now had criminal dammage and attempting to escape arrest on his list of offences.

Maybe you had to be there but cue lots of staff pissing themselfs laughing.

Lectured Out

2005-09-28T17:13:00.000+01:00

Day Two this week (Monday was a study day and I actually did some study! (and went to uni freshers fair)) so yesterday was a afternoon of Lecturing, and today was a FULL day of lecturing. it was Ethics and Law this morning which I actually found quite interesting, mostly related to real case law and actual local cases. However the afternoon was all waffle about somthing which I cannot even remember let alone understand. - Off out Teaching first-aid tonight to my little children, meh, Wonder what topic will be sprung this week?! we'll see.

Unconscious.

2005-09-26T15:04:00.000+01:00

Yes, well first-aiding last night, arrived late (as per usual) to find two Ambulances already dealing with two unconscious people. Then a cut finger for me to play with. Followed by a relatively quiet night (bar a couple of punches etc...) Ta all.

MUST get on with this university work!!! so much to do, so little time!
Got to write a review type thing on this article I've been given.

Sunday Feeling

2005-09-25T11:32:00.000+01:00

I managed Hull and back in a day yesterday with no problems, dropped off the Laptop with my friend. What did I say just before we left his house? "do you have everything?", to which he said yes, Then about 60miles down the road.. "we have everything, yes?" and he said yes... So were setting up this laptop and where is the manual AND POWER CABLES!!!!!.. on his desk at home @~!"Â£+*#! So they will have to be posted on next day tomorrow.

Today I think my Mum and Dad are taking me out for a Birthday meal. Had a strange birthday this year really, No brother (away at university) and no Farther (working away) But I went out with friends and stayed the night at theirs.

NEW!

2005-09-23T21:44:00.000+01:00

Well its September, I've had my Birthday and I have a new blog!
I have moved my bloging to allow myself some more control etc..

First night back at the student union bar/clubdisco last night and it was as per useual a bit of a mess. Really packed tho and new staff - this made getting to the bar, then getting served a challange!

Just upgraded my laptop to 1GB with crucial amazing service, ordered yesterday late afternoon delivered today at 11am! Bunged it in and works well.

Tomorrow I am going to Hull of all places, a friend has to deliver a laptop up there, so were taking my car and sharing the driving. Means a 0600 start tho!