Light at the end of the tunnel

10 Oct 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

I’m ashamed to say I haven’t written in this blog since the end of September. I have been so consumed by the Return to Nurse Practice course, that I haven’t been able to think about anything else. I often read the paper or see something on TV that I could write about and never get round to doing anything about it.

On a positive note though… I have written my assignment and am ready to submit it online, I really need to do that soon to avoid obsessional tweaking. Also I am over half way through my practice hours and will be finished by the end of October.

The course will be officially over 15th November and then I can take a well needed break. I have really enjoyed working back on the unit, many of the staff I worked with before are still there and some days it’s like I’d never left.

Although it has been exhausting going back to nursing, I’m glad that I made the decision to do it.

Nose to the grindstone

23 Sep 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , ,

My blog has been sadly neglected over the last few weeks.

All of my efforts lately have been concentrated on my Return to nurse practice course. I have done 4 shifts so far on the unit and it all seems to be going well, if not a little exhausting. But thankfully I’m not as fatigued as I feared I would be.

At the moment I’m working on my reflective assignment, I’m sat surrounded by articles on my chosen subjects and I’m desperate for a break. So I have decided to add to my posts for a bit of light relief.

Before I felt able enough to return to nursing I started reading about creative writing. So it’s been difficult trying to get out of the habit of writing creatively and subjectively, and start writing in an analytical style again. The last time I wrote a University level essay was about 9 years ago and I’m very rusty.

The submission date is looming and I’m conscious that I’m running out of time, but I know that I work better under pressure. When I was studying with the Open University I was up very late still writing an assignment the night before I was due to go to New York. I posted it, a day before the due date, at Heathrow Airport just before checking in.

I’ve tried so hard over the years to be more disciplined in my studies but without success. But as the old adage goes,  ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’, every assignment I’ve written has achieved a pass mark in varying numbers.  So I’m not losing too much sleep over it………yet!

All good so far

05 Sep 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , ,

Today I finished my 3rd day of an induction week for my honorary contract and my new job at South Bristol Community Hospital.

As you would probably expect the day’s programmes have been quite hard going and full on. Some of the sessions have been mind-numbingly boring, but that has been a small minority. On the whole it hasn’t been a complete waste of energy and I have found myself engaged for the majority of the time.

The highlight of the week so far has been the Violence and Aggression session this morning. It’s hard to get excited about a session that will run into a 3 hour duration, so I must admit I thought it would be a hard slog and a struggle to stay awake.

But the trainer was excellent, he was a cross between Chris Rock and Lenny Henry and was extremely funny. He managed to get all the information across while keeping us entertained for the whole 3 hours.

So far this week, although I have felt very tired, I haven’t felt fatigued or ill. This is very encouraging, this hopefully means I will cope reasonably well with work when I start.

Just on my doorstep

20 Jul 2012 3 Comments

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , ,

About 5 minutes drive away from my home is a brand spanking new hospital called South Bristol Community Hospital. It’s part of a new complex built on old waste land and shares the space with a new leisure centre and the City of Bristol College Skills Academy.

The hospital was opened in March of this year and it’s departments include dental, day surgery, day assessment, physio and occupational therapy, radiology and outpatients. There are 2 inpatient wards specialising in the treatment of strokes and rehabilitation. The Walk-in centre has moved there from it’s Knowle West home and it’s now named the Urgent Care department.

I found myself there today for a job interview to work on the nurse bank as a healthcare assistant until I finish my course and can work as a qualified staff nurse. I don’t think I have ever been in such a quiet hospital. There wasn’t hoards of staff noisily milling around or patients hanging around in corridors waiting to be seen or to be taken somewhere. The hospital is well designed and tastefully decorated in grey, white and chrome, making it a pleasing and restful place to be.

My interview went very well and as long as my references are up to scratch, I have the job. I am a hospital nurse at heart and quite honestly I don’t really want to work in nursing and residential homes, so the agency I joined a few months ago didn’t work out for me.

I think it’ll be good for me to work at this hospital because it’s so close to home, this is important so that I won’t be exhausted by travelling to and from work, especially when I first return to working after not being able to for so long.

Also it’s so exciting to be part of something new, to work in a beautiful purpose built facility that is clean and well equipped.

I’m sure that if I’m offered the job I’ll be very happy there and will choose to stay there as a qualified nurse when I’ve finished the Return to nursing course.

 

Licenced to cure………..well almost

16 Jun 2012 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , ,

Well I’ve survived the first 2 days of the Return to Nurse practice course. On Thursday armed with my new stationary I made my way to the University of the West of England, (UWE). There are 28 of us on the course from 5 specialisms of nursing; children’s (me and 2 others), adult, health visiting, mental health and learning disabilities with many different reasons for letting our registrations lapse.

The first day was full on and intense and most of us lost the will to live once we got to the library tour in the afternoon. But at the end of that day for our last session 3 nurses who had just finished the course came and spoke to us about their experiences, that was very useful and they answered many questions from lots of nervous newbies.

Day 1 couldn’t have been that traumatic as we all turned up for day 2. The second day was just as hard going as the first, being bombarded with so much information I thought my brain might explode. But I’m in no doubt now what is expected of me on this course; an 80% pass rate on a maths test, a 2000 word reflective assignment, at least 100 hours of nurse practice and competences to be met. When it’s written out like that it doesn’t seem much to achieve, but at the moment it seems like a huge mountain to climb.

I’m sure after a couple of good nights sleep I’ll be ready to pick up my mammoth pile of paperwork and make sense of it all and crack on with the task in hand.

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