The Nurses In My Life

As student nurses, there’s one question we’re asked more than any other: why we came into nursing. My story begins with meeting a number of truly wonderful and inspiring nurses, who showed me unlimited compassion and empathy during an extended period of acute illness a few years ago. It was these nurses who made a truly awful experience bearable: I will never forget how the mere sight of them walking onto the ward in the morning would immeasurably lift my spirits, regardless of how terrible I felt, or what awful things were in store. Not only were these nurses pivotal in my recovery, but they were also pivotal in what began as a momentary musing about joining the nursing profession, and the rest as they say is history.

Prior to my falling ill, I’d had limited contact with nurses - in those days, I would do absolutely anything to avoid encountering health professionals of any kind. Four years on and oh how things have changed. Through my nursing education and journey, I’ve been introduced to a plethora of nursing professionals: from lecturers, to clinical practitioners, to the nursing twiterati, and what an impressive bunch they are.

I’ve written previously about how awesome I find the lecturers at my university: I have, on numerous occasions, exited lecture halls feeling nothing short of intoxicated due to the heady sharing of knowledge and passion from such a driven group of nurses. I love being in their company, gloriously cocooned by their wealth of experience and wisdom.
 
Similarly, the nurses whom I have encountered out in clinical practice have been just as impressive. None more so than my most recent placement mentor, who quite simply, has been more inspiring, more brilliant, and more important than any other. First and foremost, she is a fabulous nurse: boundless in terms of her courage, commitment, caring nature, and compassion. In addition, she is a truly phenomenal mentor, and was obviously and completely invested in me and my education from day one. She is what nursing can be and should be about, she is the 6 cs and more, she is, the nurse that I want to be.

The nurses I have encountered, come to know, and love, don’t end there however: thanks to my preferred and solely-utilised social-media platform, Twitter, both my nursing life and development have been greatly enriched. I love Twitter. I can sometimes lose entire days to it - trawling through the unlimited ideas, thoughts, comments, and knowledge shared by whom I affectionately refer to as the nursing twiterati. Admittedly, I have my favourites, most Twitter users do, but I have come to depend on and immensely value all these forward-thinking nurses who are fiercely driven and passionate about the profession and their patients. Twitter has provided me with a robust and conducive support system and forum, without which I would undoubtedly be lost.

All those mentioned, are people who have saved, altered, informed, touched, and enhanced my life; they are, just some of the nurses in my life.

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!

Can I Recommend...

Since making the decision to become a nurse, and starting Florence Nursingtales, I have been introduced to a friendly little place known simply as, the online nursing community. On my travels across the world wide web, I’ve stumbled across a plethora of blogs dedicated to the wonderful world of nursing; some educational, some eye opening, and some truly moving.

And then of course there’s Twitter, which effectively acts as a microblogging facility that enables you to publish concise thoughts and information as well find other like-minded tweeple - sorry I couldn’t resist. You can follow or not follow who you like, and build your very own community based on whatever it is you are interested in.

Both have been influential and educational for me personally, and after reading a wonderful post about the importance of community and social media for nurses over at Another Agency Nurse, I thought I would follow her lead and offer a few recommendations of my own as a way of hopefully expanding the community.

So in no particular order, except for alphabetical, here are my recommendations:

Blogs

Another Agency Nurse - This informative and passionate blog comes courtesy of Teresa Chinn, an RN for 15 years and now an agency nurse, who is especially dedicated to getting more nurses talking via the use of social media.

Little Nursey Blog - A wonderfully informative blog aimed primarily at current and soon-to-be student nurses, featuring an assortment of reflections and experiences from the author.

Militant Medical Nurse - Brutally yet brilliantly honest accounts of what it’s like to work on a general medical ward in an NHS hospital.

Nurchat - Another of Teresa Chinn’s projects, which is run in conjunction with the @NurChat Twitter account, offering a place for UK-based nurses to discuss a variety of issues every fortnight on Twitter.

Nurse Me - Sadly no longer updated, this is the blog of a superbly-sarcastic critical care and trauma nurse based in the U.S.

Pee and Sympathy: True Stories from an RN - Another blog that is sadly no longer updated, featuring the wonderfully written accounts of a New-York-City-based nurse. There’s some truly moving and funny stuff here, definitely one to check out.

Who to follow on Twitter 

Rather than me try and inadequately describe why you should follow the people below, click on the links and see for yourself.

@AgencyNurse
@BeardyStudNurse
@gallowcl
@Hattie_Jacques
@NurChat
@PamNelmesFoH
@sarah_morbey
@Soon2BaBurse
@Tweetest_nurse