Aidful Apps

It's officially freshers' week - not that we get to experience much of it as student nurses, cue the violin! - signalling the start of a new academic year for both new and continuing student nurses. We all know that freshers’ week means freebies, so in keeping with tradition, I thought I'd mention a few handy, free apps that may be of use regardless of juncture.

1. Dropbox

This is a fab service and app that frankly I would be lost without. It’s essentially a cloud storage system that allows you to easily copy, store, share, and access a variety of file formats from either a computer (any computer I may add) or from your smartphone. You’re provided with 2GB worth of storage absolutely free, which can be increased by instigating successful referrals and other minor bits of admin. There are price plans available for those who require mega storage, but even with all of my uni work and other random files on there, their free storage quota has thus far been more than sufficient for me.

For more info and to sign up head here: https://www.dropbox.com/

App available for iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Kindle Fire users. In addition to the app and desktop internet access, there’s also a Window’s desktop application that’s well worth installing enabling you to easily copy files over to your dropbox account.

2. NICE Guidance

A must have for any student nurse, allowing access to all published NICE guidelines via an easy-to-use and effective interface and filter system. Regular content updates are available, ensuring that you have relevant and up-to-date information at all times.

For more info or direct link downloads for smart phones head here:
http://www.nice.org.uk/aboutnice/nicewebsitedevelopment/NICEApps.jsp

App currently only available for iPhone and Android users.

3. Guidelines

Another clinical guidelines app, but this app collates and provides guidelines from a number of bodies including the aforementioned NICE, as well as the Department of Health, and independent bodies. Updates are released bi-monthly each year. As with NICE guidance, this app features a pleasant and easy-to-use interface.

For more info or direct link downloads for smart phones heads here: http://www.eguidelines.co.uk/app/#.UjW7VD-TW8A

App currently only available for iPhone and Android users.

4. Evernote

Billed as an app that ‘makes it easy to remember things big and small from your everyday life using your computer, phone, tablet and the web’, Evernote is that and so much more. You can pretty much pull all sorts of information from a variety of sources (photos, webpages, text, links, voice recordings, etc), or create your own notelets from scratch, and store them in an organised fashion in the form of ‘notebooks’. There is a free and paid version of this app, but with all the functionality the free version has to offer along with bundles of bells and whistles, I’ve never felt the need to upgrade. I’ll be honest, the interface and usability could be a bit easier to get your head around, but don’t let that put you off.

For more info or direct link downloads head here: https://evernote.com/

App available for iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and WebOS users - there’s also a desktop version available for Windows and Mac OS users.

5. Survive Sepsis

Sepsis has been in the news again recently, specifically in relation to the number of needless deaths associated with it, so it seems only right to include this wonderful and brilliant app amongst the mix. Devised by the UK Sepsis Trust, this is effectively an interactive screening tool for health professionals; featuring selectable SIRS criteria as well as a sepsis-six checklist. It’s well-designed, easy to use, and potentially life saving, what more could you want.

App currently only available for iPhone and Android users.

6. ADC - Adult Drug Calculations

If like me you’re rubbish at remembering the formulas for adult drugs calculations, and perhaps not too good at the old maths part either, then this app may prove invaluable. Designed by NHS South Central, this app will walk you through the lot; with guides, step-by-step tutorials, and a quiz for good measure. Not the prettiest interface, but easy enough to use.

App currently only available for iPhone and Android users.

And there you have it. Enjoy Freshers’ week everyone, and I hope you all have a fab academic year.

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.

Year Two Overview

I was never convinced by the early and repeated warnings that three seemingly long years at university would be over in the proverbial blink of an eye. Or that the time for transition from student to qualified nurse would arrive far sooner than any of us were expecting. Yet here I am, officially at the end of my second year, and with only one more year to go!

On reflection, I have thoroughly enjoyed my second year (more so than my first in fact); proving simultaneously to be a trying yet wholly transformative experience. Expectations at university and out in practice have been understandably higher, increasingly so as I’ve progressed through both the year and programme. However, with these new demands has come a greater sense of confidence, satisfaction, achievement, and meaning - in other words, the harder you work, the greater the reward.

The start of the year was definitely the hardest, and I’ll admit, I did suffer a bit with those infamous second-year blues! Fortunately, they didn’t last very long, and by the time semester two had made an appearance, they were nothing more than than a mere memory. It was this semester that proved to be a huge turning point for me, and happily it’s been onwards and upwards ever since. Academically, I wasn’t too concerned: my grades thus far had been consistently good. Rather, it was on a practical level that I was worried, and it wasn’t until my placement that semester (halfway through my degree I’d like to point out) that things finally began to come together; resulting in my thinking and acting as a proper nurse for what felt like the very first time.

It was this same placement that also provided me with the most inspiring, rewarding, and humbling placement experience to date, as well as the answer to an ongoing issue I had been wrestling with since the end of my first year: the area I wanted to specialise in. Which for those who are curious, will hopefully be the wonderful and inspiring world of critical care. However with three placements left to go (gulp), I’m aware that this is all subject to change.

My last and final semester has been just as pivotal and affecting as it’s predecessor, but for very different reasons. From an academic point of view, I could not have enjoyed my most recent module anymore. Not only this, but I can honestly say that it has greatly informed and improved the care that I provide to patients; making me a better, more confident, and safer nurse in the process - which only further strengthens the argument that nurses should and do need to be university educated. But I digress.

Following the aforementioned amazing placement experience, I was convinced that I must be due a not so amazing one; I’m the kind of glass-is-always-half-empty sort of gal. How wrong I was. With the support and guidance of the best nurse and mentor I have ever encountered (blog post on that topic to follow), I am finishing second year not only a more capable and better nurse, but with a much-needed, newly-found belief that I might just be able to do this. Where as my previous placement had enabled me to begin to identify as a nurse, and the kind of nurse that I wanted to be, this placement had allowed me to develop into that nurse; the kind of nurse that I am proud to be.

It’s only after writing this that I realise what a truly amazing and momentus year this has been, and although I’m sad and scared to leave it all behind, I know that it’s time to move forward. Fortunately, third year is just around the corner.

Education Is The Key To Success

One of the many things I was blissfully unaware of before embarking on my nursing education, was the fact that I would regularly encounter negative perceptions in relation to university-educated student nurses' quality of learning and preparation, in comparison to the more traditional method of ‘training’; i.e. pre Project 2000.

At a time when education is considered to be a human right, a feminist issue, and a key element in addressing health and social inequalities and inequities, I find it incredible that there are people who believe education is the worst thing ever to have happened to the nursing profession.

The world of nursing has changed dramatically throughout history; establishing nursing as a specialised and valued profession in its own right, as opposed to the positively-prehistoric representation of nurses as the dutiful handmaidens of seemingly omnipotent doctors from days gone by. Today, nurses provide a plethora of skillsets and services to a broad spectrum of patients. We are staff nurses utilising our clinical judgment and decision-making skills in order to devise and deliver advanced and comprehensive care and treatment, we are specialist nurses running our own clinics and providing valuable and unique input in relation to patient care, we are nursing teams providing more and more nurse-led services in a truly autonomous fashion, we are research nurses responsible for the provision of high-quality data and research, we are advanced nurse practitioners utilising enhanced knowledge and clinical skills in order to do what has traditionally always been the job of the doctor in determining clinical diagnoses, we are, in my opinion, the backbone of the NHS.

It seems logical to me that in order to fulfil and develop these roles and in turn our profession, it is necessary and vital that we be educated, not trained, to a standard fitting of such important, broad, and demanding roles. I say educated and not trained, because, for me, education implies an active and developing learning process that involves crucial skills such of those as reasoning and critical analysis, ultimately leading to evidence-based practice. Conversely, the word training connotes the indoctrination of prescriptive instructions and skills.

However, I'm aware as I write this that some people have an issue specifically with the standard of education that they feel is being provided, rather than an outright issue with university education itself. Obviously I can only comment on the education provided by my own university, and although I may not enjoy or see the relevance of every single lecture, I honestly feel that the education I have been afforded thus far has been invaluable, inspiring, and thought provoking. There will always be variances in how the programme is received and utilised by students, but I would argue that perhaps this an issue that relates to the candidate selection process rather than the education process specifically, but that’s a whole other blog post!

My university and the education that they have provided have been pivotal in shaping me into the kind of student nurse that I am proud to be, and I know that by the end of this degree, I will be a qualified nurse in the truest sense of the word.

Support Systems

I can honestly say that this degree is one of the hardest things I have ever done. Not only is it physically and mentally demanding, but it's also extremely emotionally demanding. Whether you're at university or out in practice, times can get tough, and it's important during those times to have a solid support network.

There is much discussion both online and offline about the importance of a good mentor, and what it is exactly that makes them so good: including the invaluable support that they so passionately and often unknowingly provide. However, less is said in relation to personal tutors, who are, in my opinion, just as important as practice mentors, if not more so.

As with mentors, there are myriad factors that can impact upon the relationship between students and personal tutors, and the resultant experiences had. I suspect many of these contributory factors are the same for both camps alike; for example, the random assignation of  students to staff members resulting in pot-luck outcomes, due to issues such as personality clashes, time constraints, or lack of interest from either of the respective parties.

There is no obvious or easy solution to many of these problems. However, perhaps an element of flexibility and understanding from the institutions involved, combined with a more pro-active approach from students would prove beneficial. In my experience, many students neglect to fully utilise their personal tutor: usually as a result of one or more of the aforementioned issues, ultimately bypassing what I feel is an undervalued and fruitful support system.

On a more personal and positive level, I would be lost without my personal tutor; I value her advice and guidance immensely. She is always accepting of my many requests for support, and I feel that all of our sessions are tailored in order to suit me as an individual and fit my specific needs: all of which works towards making me feel empowered and valued in the long run. With all sincerity, I could not have asked for a more perfect pairing, and I am truly and forever grateful for the nurse that she is striving to help me to become.

Great Expectations

 

Last week saw the start of my final semester as a second-year student nurse, and I can’t help but feel that by comparison this year has gone much quicker than my first. Perhaps it’s because the learning curve was so staggeringly steep during those initial twelve months; every lecture, every placement, every shift, all felt like unexplored and uncertain territory. Fortunately, by the time second year rolled around a feeling of familiarity had begun to set in, and both my confidence and comfort levels benefited as a result.

 

Very early on into my second year (in fact I think it was the first day!) I realised that whilst some things would follow much the same pattern as the previous year, the expectations now placed upon us were vastly different. Academically things had obviously stepped up a gear (or five), and the story was much the same out in practice. I remember there being an almost protective quality that came with being a first year, a kind of get-out-of-jail card if you will; on the occasion that somebody mistook you for a more-advanced student or even qualified nurse, it was common to hear someone say ‘she’s only a first-year’ by way of an excuse. That all changed the day I transitioned from a first-year to a second-year student nurse however. Gone was the proverbial cotton wool that had somewhat protected me whilst in the infancy of my education, and in its place was an almost tangible weight of expectation from those all around me; these days you’re far more likely to hear ‘let the student do that - she’s a second year, she can handle it’, and I’m pleased and proud to say that for the most part, I can.

 

So now that I find myself coming towards the end of my second year, my thoughts naturally turn to third year and the even greater expectations that will fall upon me during the final stretch of my nursing education. I envisage it to be equally terrifying and demanding, requiring yet another step up academically, as well as the infamous management placement to conquer, and the small matter of a dissertation to write. The story doesn’t end there though, because once I’ve (hopefully) completed third year and graduated, the really hard stuff starts. I imagine the transition from student to qualified nurse to be the most the difficult, whilst also being the most anticipated and worthwhile. I know that there are worrying and tough times ahead, but I also know that I will do whatever it takes to succeed; after all I didn’t come into this profession to be an adequate nurse, I came into it to be the best nurse that I can be, and ultimately, I expect nothing less from myself.

A Positive Approach

It wasn’t until the idea of becoming a nurse started to emerge that I began to broaden my healthcare horizon to extend beyond that of my life-long fascination with the human form, and take an increasing interest in other issues such as medicine, health-care provision, and of course the nursing profession. Since then, I have tried to ensure that I keep abreast of all things health related, particularly on a national level. However, I’m becoming more and more frustrated and fatigued at reading/hearing/seeing the incessant negative and dour press surrounding the nursing profession, and our hardly-flawless but nonetheless largely wonderful national health service. I am in no way denying that terrible things can and do happen both within the profession and the NHS, or indeed that things need to be reported and addressed, but I do want to promote some of the more positive and truly amazing events that also occur. I can think of no better or more relevant way of doing this than by writing about my personal experiences in practice, including the absolutely incredible, awe-inspiring, and unforgettable placement I have had this semester, which has without doubt been one of the best experiences of my life.

To date, I have never encountered a bad placement: I’ve inevitably enjoyed some more than others, but ultimately every experience has had something to offer. I’ve worked across different trusts, different areas, and different settings, and the care, for the most part, has been consistently high. I’ve worked with teams who have been understaffed, under-resourced, and over-stretched, and whilst the level of care was variable and not entirely holistic, it was, in my opinion, these aforementioned pressures and constraints that were the major contributory factors. I am certainly not implying that this is always the case; I’m sure we’re all too aware that substandard care delivered by substandard individuals is very much a reality, and whilst one such individual is always one too many, my experience has been that such cases are the exception and not the rule.

The vast majority of people whom I have encountered throughout my placements have demonstrated the kind of patient-centred and holistic care that has endlessly impressed and inspired me. I have been consistently moved by the plights of many patients, and so have I by the exceptional care and attention that they duly received. I have finished countless shifts feeling completely dejected and at a loss as to how I will ever be as good a nurse as so-and-so is. I have experienced first hand the compassion and empathy of nurses, who have quite literally held my hand and tirelessly supported me through the tough times of this degree. And perhaps most tellingly, many of these nurses have passed the ubiquitous would-I-be-happy-for-this-person-to-look-after-one-of-my-own-family-members benchmark nursing assessment with flying colours.

I could go on, but I strongly suspect that I am preaching to the choir. I for one am truly proud to be a part of this very special profession; a pride which deepens and develops with each and every placement, due mainly to the many magnificent nurses I have encountered along the way. I can only hope that one day I am the kind of nurse who motivates and inspires new generations of nurses coming through the ranks to be the very best that they can be, in much the same way that I have been.