Hello everyone!

I cant believe my first year of nurse training has flown in already! Time does fly when you are having fun!

I have loved ever minute of it so far! Long may it continue! 🙂

I am delighted to have successfully completed all my first year modules and placements and I have to say I have learnt oodles and oodles already which I am mighty proud of! However it is really tricky to pin point exactly what I do know right now. I know there is soooo much more to learn.

You can read about my first year placement experiences below:

PLE 1 Ward 103 ARI short Stay Medical

PLE 2 Acute mental Health Ward Cornhill

PLE 3 Day Case Ward Dr Grays

I am really pleased to have had these experiences all were super in their own way!

I do have to congratulate 🎉 my cohort for successfully completing our first year of nurse training. We came into the profession at a time that will go down in history. We had no real knowledge of what to expect from the dare I say it, covid-19 pandemic.

It is fair to say it has been a challenging few years for everyone in some shape or form! A tad disruptive shall we say! Our placements were shorter than they normally would be and there was/are some changes within the hospital etc, but I reckon everyone has done really well to adapt and work around any challenges faced! It is quite an achievement really! 🙂 We as students are most fortunate to have the had the support of the university- the lectures have done their upmost to ensure the pandemic didn’t impact our learning too much by introducing new ways of teaching. The majority of our learning has been carried out online and we undertook a few online simulated practice experiences to make up for the weeks we couldn’t get out into practice.Thank you to all the staff who have supported our learning this year! The aim has been to go with the flow and embrace it all!

I would also say that in my experience practice have been very understanding of the number of hours we have actually been out in practice, and they have done their upmost to teach anything and everything during the time we have been in practice (while doing their job at the same time), and for that I am extremely grateful! You are all HEREOS!!

I would say that during my placements I definitely made the most of my time by asking lots of questions and getting stuck in. I absorbed as much as I could in the time we had, after all practice time is really precious and making it what you can is defiantly the key to a great placement! 🙂

My highlights and favourite parts this year…

How to I narrow it down to just a few ?!

*I loved being apart of a team in practice!

*Meeting new people!

*My time spent in Elgin!

*Making a difference (albeit a small one just now) to the lives of those who stepped through the hospital doors! Even if it was just taking time to have a chat to those on the ward who were nervous, or making someone a cup of tea it all added to their experience on the ward.

* I have enjoyed learning clinical skills for example; doing the observations, injections, glucose monitoring and much much more!

*Learning new things and building on the knowledge I already have! (Those ahah puzzle moments)! Connecting that theory to practice is what I mean!

*Building lots of confidence! And I will continue to do this throughout my training!

*Starting my podcast and learning from some super practitioners and leaders!

*The buzz! I did find myself getting emotional at times in certain cases, it was lovely to see the journey and end result for some people. Even as a first year I could see how rewarding nursing is! 🌟

Its been the quickest year ever and I have loved it! Thank you to everyone who has made a huge impact on the greatness of my first year!

Heres to stage 2! All the best S20 cohort! We have GOT this! 🙂