Quite bored

I haven't posted much on my blog lately because there hasn't been much going on. I've finished uni classes. I think my group presentations and assignments in the last week went really well but I haven't found out the results of those yet. I got 17/20 for the Community Nursing Test which was worth 20%, and now I'm just working on assignments and reading to prepare for my placements.

The two assignments I'm currently working on are a 2000 word essay about Community Health Needs Assessment and a 1000 word care plan about a blood transfusion (Acute Care). When I've done those I've got two more 1000 word assignments to do as well which I'd like to get done before my clinical placements start in two weeks from now.

I've also been adding to my reading some books about drug and alcohol (and other addictions, like gambling), to learn more before I go on my community placement.

So this is a summary of my learning for the last week or so:

Lectures:
• Nutritional Disorders
• Applying the Recovery Model of Intervention in Mental Health Care
• The Role of the Mental Health Nurse
• Analyse the impact of mental illness on the individual, their families and communities
• Mental Health Act 1986: relating specific mental health legislation to the provision of mental health care
• Mental Health Assessment and Treatment Planning
• Carer Perspective – this lecture was given by the mother of a paranoid schizophrenic and she talked about her experiences caring for her son throughout his life.
Reading
• Addictive and Risky Behaviours: Drugs, Alcohol, Inhalant Abuse, Smoking, Eating Disorders, Self Mutilation and Internet.
• The User: The truth about drugs and why people take them – this book is made up of factual stuff about drugs as well as interviews with recreational users, dependent users, parents, police officers and so on to get different perspectives on drug use.
• Drugs in Society: A History
• The Epidemiology of Australian Drug Use
• Ulcerative Colitis
• Peptic Ulcer Disease
• Crohn’s Disease

Tonight I'm going to a 30th birthday party of one of my primary school friends, looking forward to catching up with old Darwin friends, and according to the invitation "all alcohol will be provided", so should be a lot of fun, LOL.

What I did this week . . .

I'm really happy with how much I got done this week. I worked at my teaching job on Thursday and Friday and didn't do any study on those days so all of this was done on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and today - Saturday. I've now finished all the readings and lectures for Community Nursing, which I've been focusing on to prepare for the quiz. I've just done it and I'm pretty sure I will get a decent score. This coming week I have two oral presentations to do with my team (on Tuesday and Wednesday) and on Monday we have a 4 hour pre-clinical placement lab session. This week will be the last week of classes, and then it's just assignments, online lectures, clinical placements, and then exams. Once I've completed my assignments for Community Nursing and Acute Care (I have 4 to do), I will focus on the Mental Health content. I've hardly done anything for this subject so far because the assessment is 50% written exam (in November) and then 50% assignment based on my clinical placement which is not till January.

What I got done this week:

Online modules:
• Community Nursing Quiz (worth 20% of my final mark)
Reading
• Community Assessment for Health
• Wound Management
• Wound Care Products
• Wound Identification
• The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion
• Screening, risk assessment, immunisation and surveillance
Lectures:
• Wound Healing Physiology – Acute Wounds
• Wound Healing Physiology – Chronic Wounds
• Wound Healing and Assessment
• Planning, Implementation and Evaluation in Health Promotion
• Health Education Promotion
• Community Nursing in Australia in this Era
Homework:
• Project Campaign Planning Sheet
• Team Education Session Plan and Evaluation Tool (worth 10%)
• Essay – Community Needs Health Assessment (worth 40%, 2000 words and about half done)
Videos:
• Wound Dressings – Topical Agents, Films, Foams, Hydrocolloids, Alginates, Cadexomer Iodine, Hydroactives, Hydrogels, Silver Dressings, Bandages.

End of week update

This is what I got done this weekend:

Online modules:
• Basic ECG Interpretation – I got 100% on this, although it was open book and the answers were pretty easy to find. This is actually a complicated skill that I don’t really understand that well yet.
Reading
• Spirometry in Primary Care
• Infection Control Standard Precautions
• Guidelines for the management of iron deficiency anaemia
• Assessing common endocrine abnormalities
• Preparing the Patient for Colostomy Care
• Assessment of Patient for Pressure Ulcer: Risk and Skin Asseessment
• Reviewing health promotion in nursing education
• Treating Pressure Ulcers
• Applying Dressing: Dry or Wet-to-Dry and Transparent
• Wound Vacuum assisted closure
Lectures:
• Effects of Immobility on the Medical Patient
• The Nursing Considerations of a Patient with Mental Illness in the General Ward
• Respiratory Disorders – Asthma and Pneumonia
Videos:
• Living with Asthma (Child)

This week I plan to work on assignments as much as I can. I have two individual essays due in the next few weeks and also two group oral presentations (both next week) to prepare for and a group assignment. I'm going to be working on Thursday and Friday so I probably won't have as much time get a lot of reading done like I have been doing on my days off, so I'm going to make the assignments my priority.

Wednesday

Lectures:
• Respiratory Conditions – COPD
• Community Health Needs Assessment
Reading
• Sleep and Sleep Disorders
• Patient Education
• Cor Pulmonale (Right-sided Heart Failure)
• Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Spirometry
• Transfusion Basics: Prescribing Blood
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder
Videos:
• Living with COPD
• Teaching a Patient to use a Spirometer
Homework:
• General Patient Education Checklist
• Community Education Session Planning Sheet

Respiratory Disease

Monday - today's workshop and lab today was about Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD), causes, symptoms, how it is assessed and treated and so on. In the lab we practised using a spirometer (measures lung capacity for inhalation), peak flow meter for exhalation and pulse oximetry. We measured our own stats, I did very well on inhalation – got up to the max, and we also had a go at measuring our pulses and oxygen levels before and straight after exercise (running up and down the stairs.


I also met with my team for about an hour and we discussed what we are going to do for our group assignment for Community Nursing. We have decided to do an education project which is aimed at 12-15 year olds and can be presented in schools to raise their awareness and motivation regarding health behaviours, specifically to prevent obesity and the related morbidities like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. My section will focus on the importance of getting the right amount of sleep and stress management. Then we will also do an oral presentation (aimed at this audience) about diet.

Productive weekend

The Mornington trip was great, we were blessed with nice weather! We did lots of tasting of local produce - chocolate, cheese, beer etc. I forgot I was supposed to be practising my bahasa for my most of the day so on the drive home we made a strict rule of no English, LOL. Here are a couple of pics.



Other than that I got quite a bit done this weekend, catching up on reading and online lectures. Here's a summary:
Reading:
• Mental Health Medication Story (Education Tool for Indigenous Clients)
• Mental Health Nursing Subject Guide
• The Evolution of Ethics for Community Practice
• Context and Roles in Community Nursing Practice
• Nutrition and Nutritional Disorders
Lectures:
• Introduction to Mental Health Nursing
• Mental Health Nursing: Indigenous Context – Cultural Considerations
• Mental Health Nursing: Indigenous Context – Clinical Assessment
• Primary Health Care: Introduction
• Primary Health Care and Community Nursing
Videos:
• Managing your Colostomy
• Patient Arriving at Triage & Handover
• Emergency Nurse Patient Assessment on Arrival
• Patient’s Experiences with Scleroderma