The first one we went out with the community District Nursing teams, which was brilliant at Knaresborough, which is near our hospital in Harrogate. A really different setting to our usual setting, obviously, we're all outpatients usually. So it was really nice to see how different teams work, what sort of things they face in the community, challenge-wise, that sort of thing. So that was good.
Then I went on to do a Trauma and Orthopedic Ward, an area I've never worked in before, but was absolutely fantastic. I learned so much, managed to get, um, a lot of patient care, medicine management, went to theatres, that sort of thing, so it was all really cool.
I did Community, which was really good. That was at Harrogate so near my hospital. Completely different from anything I've done before. I learned loads about legs, and it was just completely different from what I do in main outpatients.
I then did Respiratory and Cardiology ward, again something I've never done. It was more about medicines and things about the heart and respiratory that I'd never done before, so it was so interesting. I was able to go to theatres and watch heart surgeries and things like that, which was really good—pacemakers, and it was really good.
Then I did an enrichment placement, which was outside the NHS, where I went to a local school, a primary school, and learned all about safeguarding and how they sort of safeguard the children, which was, again, something I'd never learned or even thought of before. So, it was really good.
Key is communication—clear communication with the patients you're working with, the staff you're working with. Without that, you can be in all sorts of trouble. So I think communication and documentation also, if it's not written down, it didn't happen. And just, using your own skills, like interpersonal skills with patients, things like, you know, getting a rapport with them, building a communication between the two of you that you both understand and are both happy with.
The education, again, and getting back into learning—it’s something that, at my age, I never thought I'd do. Um, and again, with children, yeah, I've got young children, so it's been quite nice to sort of learn and have my children quite get involved in it. My eldest is reading all the things that I've been doing, and yeah, so getting back into learning and learning something completely different, but then taking it back into my job and using it as a skill in my job. So it's something I can definitely take forward.
It was advertised through the intranet at work, and I kind of filled it out there and then. When it was shown to me, I just bit the bullet and did it there and then. It's about time—I've been using excuses for a long time. Um, and one of my colleagues and a few others that I work with as well have, you know, they've pushed me into it and told me to stop being a coward.
I hope to just increase my knowledge, become a professional, and be a registered Nursing Associate at the end of it. Have a pin number, and the agreement so far is to stay, actually, where I am, which is in outpatient hands-on plastics.
