Into the frying pan

09 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by Carole Gardiner in Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

Today I went into university to talk to the new cohort on the Return to Nurse Practice course. On our first day 3 nurses from the previous group came to talk to us. I couldn’t tell tell you exactly what they told us and what questions were asked and answered, but I do remember that I felt much better about the course after that session.

So when our tutor asked if any of us were willing to come and talk to the newbies I didn’t hesitate to volunteer,  because I knew how invaluable it was for me to hear about other people’s experience of the course and returning to practice.

There were 33 in the group and they all resembled scared rabbits in headlights! I couldn’t help but wonder if our cohort looked that petrified and whether we fired questions at the panel as quickly as they did.

Hopefully we managed to help calm their nerves about the coming months and that they all went home feeling a little more confident that they had made the right decision about starting the course.

 

 

nurses classroom

 

They think it’s all over….it is now

16 Nov 2012 Leave a comment

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

This week saw my last study day at university, I have finished my Return to nurse practice course and I’ve passed!

I am so relieved that it’s all over and I’m immensely proud of myself for what I have achieved. I still can’t believe how well I’ve coped with going back to nursing and I’m now convinced that I’ve finally recovered from Chronic fatigue Syndrome.

We don’t get out registration numbers until March next year so I can’t work as a qualified nurse until then. But if I do get a band 5 job before then, if the management agrees, I could work as a band 4 until my registration is confirmed. There may be some band 5 jobs coming up on the unit I did my practice hours on, so watch this space!

At long last I’m off to Turkey to see Hasan and I can’t wait, I’m flying out on Monday and will probably stay until just after Christmas. I will be taking my laptop with me as I will need to keep up with Strictly Come Dancing online, so I will hopefully find something interesting to write about for the blog. Actually does anyone know what online TV website is the best for watching TV in Turkey?

At the end of our study day on Thursday our lecturer showed us this video that has been created by the Royal College of Nursing for nurse recruitment, I think it’s really well done and I thought I would share it with you all.

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!

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.