Friday 11 November 2011

Butterflies


It is now only a matter of days until I begin my very first placement on a general medical ward within a fairly large hospital. Scary stuff!

We were told by university that it’s always good practice to contact the placement links two weeks before starting a placement, and if possible make arrangements to go and meet the mentors and have a look round. Following a phone call I made earlier on this week, I actually went to visit the ward and staff I will be working alongside for the next few weeks. I cannot tell you how relieved I was upon meeting my mentor and some of the nursing staff. They are all lovely! Although I'm relieved to discover how nice the team are, the realisation of what it means to become a nurse has done nothing to calm my nerves, and I am now more nervous than ever! I have been informed however that there will be two or three other student nurses on the same ward as me, so that has provided some comfort at least - safety in numbers so to speak.

I think it’s fair to say that most of us are fairly nervous about our first placements, and after tweeting about my own personal misgivings these last few days, I’ve rather unsurprisingly discovered that some of you are too. Here’s what I’ve realised thanks to a number of my online mentors and supporters: anxiety focuses the mind and results in much-needed caution (courtesy of @AmBadwolf & @sarah_morbey); if you can, buy a pocket-sized guide to drugs that you can refer to at any time on your placement, or even better, make friends with the pharmacist and try and wangle a spare copy of the BNF (courtesy of @switchedonduhhh); ‘they won't expect u to know everything & we were all students once’ (courtesy of @AgencyNurse); and perhaps most importantly, as the above shows, there is a lot of support for us to draw on - for those on Twitter, I would highly recommend following everybody mentioned here, as well as forming an amazing support network, they are also great sources of information and inspiration.

I can honestly say that after receiving the above responses, and some others, I am feeling much better about the whole situation. I know I can do this, and so can you!

4 comments:

  1. So pleased that your first mentor and nursing team is going to be lovely! A good nursing team makes things so much easier to get in to.
    Look forward to your first placement post :D

    Sarah x

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  2. Wow- good luck on your first placement :-)

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  3. Thanks, sweets. Looking forward to yours coming around and hearing all about it :)

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  4. Heyy hope today goes/went excellently! Xx

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