Tuesday, October 18, 2011

I'm gonna be a psychiatric nurse!

I got my first choice of grad years! I am so happy and feel like all the hard work and time I put in these past two years has paid off. What a great way to finish the uni semester! I still have to pass all my subjects and get registered but I'm sure that will not be a problem.

My grad year will start on January 30 so until then I'm going to be doing some teaching, some aged care nursing home work, and have a bit of a holiday until then.

Handed in two more assessments and had my last day of clinical placement yesterday. Also got my mark back for the oral presentation - 12.5/15!! wow, was not expecting that.

I also got my clinical appraisal back from my nurse buddy who had to rate me in about 40 different aspects of nursing, and he rated me "independent" for EVERYTHING!! That means I'll get a perfect mark of 50/50 for the placement which is actually graded this semester, not just pass or fail, and is worth 50%. My final piece of assessment is for other 50% of that subject and is my portfolio. I have to proofread and edit what I've already done and also write up a 700 word management plan for the symptom of uncontrolled nausea. I've done the research for it and will do it when i get back from my holiday. It's not due for about another 10 days after I get back, so no stress there.

So good to have all this off my shoulders, finish a week and a half early and now going on a mini-break to europe to visit my brother and be a bridesmaid for one of my best friends! wooohoooooooo!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

This blog will be ending very soon

Sorry I have been so slack updating my blog . . . I don't have long to go now. I feel like I'm about 98% finished.

Tuesday is the last day of clinical placement.

Tomorrow I find out where I'm going to be working next year.

I have finished all my assignment but one, which I'll do when I get back from a one week holiday in Europe (for a friend's wedding) that I'm about to embark on this week.

The assessments I've done recently:

Got my Managing Chronic Conditions Essay about schizophrenia back and the mark was 40/50 which I am very pleased with. Recently finished the final piece of assessment for that subject which was an education pamphlet about the non-pharmacological aspects of managing schizophrenia in the community. I'm expecting to get quite a good mark in this subject, either an A or B.

For my communication subject, in the last two weeks I have done all three assessments. First was my oral presentation which was about male/female cultural socialisation and how that affects professional communication in nursing. I overprepared and planned to talk about biological differences in the communication styles (a la Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus), religion (eg Muslim and orthodox Jewish), professional boundaries, appropriate use of touch, disclosure of self, talking about sexuality with your patient and a few other topics . . but as the presentation was only 5 minutes I ran out of time quickly. I also have a tendancy to ad lib which doesn't help, but although I was disappointed in myself my teacher gave me good feedback and said she thought I seemed confident and that my presentation was really interesting. It was worth 15%

My second assessment for that subject was an online multiple choice exam of worth 30%. I did all the reading preparation and was pretty happy with it, although I didn't get to find out my score straight away. The third thing was an essay I just completed about a challenging communication encounter I've had on placement, 2500 words and worth 55%. I've just finished it, and will hand that in today. It was about a patient and the patient's full time carer who both had mental illness and drug addiction issues and were quite demanding with staff, especially about what drugs they wanted the patient to get (opioids and benzodiazepines - basically morphine and valium). The medical team restricted them and that made the patient and carer really angry. The essay isn't due for another week but I've been trying to get it done so I can hand it in before I go on my trip. So that's two subject now completed.

My final subject is my Clinial Practice Consolidation subject and the assessment is made up of how I perform on placmenent and a 4000 word folio of about ten different topics. That is 80% completed and not due for another 10 days after I get back so I'm going to finish that off then. As for my placement I think I've done well. I've had a really great buddy who is very experienced and has worked in several different countries. He's given me good feedback and taught me a lot, and there haven't been any issues. He's very cool, calm and collected, knowledgable, loved by the patients and lightning fast so it's been great to learn alongside someone like that.

One of the major things I experienced on this placement happened just last week. One of my patients died. He was palliative, so not for resuscitation and it was only a matter of time, but it was still a shock because I was the one who walked into the room and found him dead. He was an old man and had kidney failure, heart failure and a bad diarrhoea infection, but he kept in good spirits right to the end. I had been doing his care for the previous two hours and had just left the room to prepare everything to give him a wash. I told him I'd be back in 5 - 10 minutes and he cheerily said "ok". Then when I walked back in I saw he had vomited something on himself and he was very pale, and I couldn't get any response from him. I knew then that he was dead and went to find my buddy and the nurse in charge. I was upset about it for a little while and took a break to collect myself and have a cup of tea and talk to my colleague. Then when I went back I had to talk to the family and after that clean up the body and prepare it for the morgue, put in a plastic body bag and so on. Tough day.

I'll update this blog a couple more times as I finish up everything and find out my results but then it will come to an end. I've already sent off my nursing registration application and very soon, in a couple of months, I will be a registered practicing full-time nurse!