not quite a qualified nurse (?)_nurse preceptee

2nd week of my preceptorship proved to be a total different experience altogether from the first week of disorganisation. Partly because i was signed off for IVI pump which means i can now go near the IV drip stand and touch the IVI pump without someone screaming down my neck! anyway, it's progress nevertheless and i did feel that this is what should've happened on my first day on the ward.

one thing which still concerns me gravely is this constant talk about the possiblity of not being able to finish my preceptorship in 6 months and that it could go on for a year. what is going on here? before we accepted the job, we were told that the preceptorship is going to be 6 months and now the goal post apparently could be shifted depending on who knows what.

again i shall stay positive and keep my fingers crossed that everything will fall into place eventually.

so, a quick update on what happened on the second week: a good overall induction on the surgeries performed on the ward, the nursing care involved and a quick retraining of taking blood sugar/BM, changing IV fluid involving the use of the IV pump; we are also now encouraged to do drug rounds with the other qualified nurses for our coming drug assessment which again i'm not quite sure what it entails.

putting nursing aside, i've just started on richard dawkins' god's delusion. the first couple of chapters have been pretty interesting and i've also found a blog article critiquing the book. i think i'm going to be pretty much occupied for the next few weeks.

there is also a long list of to do things: eg. reading up on the drugs for the drug assessment, looking up royal marsden on a few procedures including taking of BM (not trying to challenge what i was told the other day but just curious about certain things mentioned), tidying up the books/files on desk and on desktop

i've renewed my rcn membership which cost me £90 and booked myself an appointment with occupational health.

o yes, adding to my to do list is to sort out my application with NHS professional for bank work. and also writing up an article for publication. huh.....at least i'm keeping myself busy and that will hopefully make me think less about how disorganised this whole preceptorship thing has been.

hopefully life will eventually return to normality...

yesterday was the first day of the 2nd week of my nurse preceptorship and it turned out to be much better than the first week. so, i feel a bit calmer now. but then to write on this blog, u really need to get pissed off which was my motivation to start this blog last week. but then i guessed i could do a list of the things i do during my nurse preceptorship and maybe upon `reflection', i could learn something??

day 1 of nurse preceptorship
daily obs
observing wound dressing (not allowed remember!!)

day 2
daily obs
BM

day 3
doing wound dressing on my own (hurray!! - isn't this sad?)
daily obs
BM

and yes, escorting patients to and from wherever they need to go or come back from where they need a member of the qualified staff (just in case they crash i suppose - i might be wrong and stand to be corrected, no one told me this but i work this trust policy out myself, lol). anyway, if this is the case which i'm sure it is then how on earth will i, a menial newly qualified nurse preceptee, who is not allowed yet to touch a bag of IV fluid, be able to save a patient who crashes?? can't the porter press the red buzzer or call out for help? or have they found out by evidence based practice that newly qualfieds have got better lungs and they can call out louder?!

anyway, i shouldn't start; let me just focus on what is positive from all these

2nd week first day was great. since it was so f.....g busy, (yesssssss), i could `steal' the care of patients from the iron grip of the nurse in charge and look after a bay of patients hehe. although i'm still not able to do most things but at least, i know who the patients are and could make them a cup of tea and do some discharges, preparing patients for theatre etc. which kinda make my day really. so, all is not lost and i look for a better tmr!

been thinking about blogging for a while. but wasn't sufficiently motivated enough to create one let alone write one.

but after my first week working with the NHS, i felt like i suddenly had so much to get out of my chest. from the trust to the ward, everything seems to be so disorganised and chaotic. if i were paranoid schizophrenic, would have thought the whole world is conspiring against me since the day i got the letter from my trust HR offering me a job.

and what the heck is this 6 months nurse preceptorship? why can't they do it properly during our nurse training? from speaking to my fellow students from the same cohort who have got jobs on various wards, the preceptorship training is so arbitrary, so random. the kind of training you get during your preceptorship depends on the ward you go to and i must say so far i'm far from impressed by the way my preceptorship training is going. is this like a postcode lottery thingy? tough if u go to a ward that is so disorganised about their preceptorship training!!

i feel like swearing now. can i swear on my own blog!? !"£$%^&*%^&*()*&^%$