Blinded by the glare

I've got three days to finish this final assignment. Three days to finish three and a half years of study. It should be simple, it should be pain free, it should be done!
But this is me and I have perfected the art of distraction.

Closer and Closer

Well they gave me an extra 2 weeks on the placement to get my skills up to pass the clinical assessment. Which I breezed in...almost. Forgot to put gloves on at one point and had to write a little report on OH & S as remediation. But it's done and I got my first half results last week.
Yes I handed in one piece 24 hours late. Yes I hadn't even finished it when I handed it in. Yes I passed! And a credit and a distinction for the other two assessments. I'm a happy Nursie Boy.
I have to say I enjoyed my surgical ward placement. It was non-stop every shift, with plenty going on and much to learn.
Now I'm on a medical ward, which is slower and not as interesting.
5 weeks to go...

Happy Happy Grrrrr

The finish line is getting closer but it feels as far away as it ever did. My procrastination will kill me yet. After seven weeks on placement I've got three days to write 2 reports and I failed my clinical assessment (where an assessor ghosts along behind you for two hours making sure you're a safe and diligent nursie boy. Apparently I'm not) so I'm a bit non committal when people ask me how I feel about being so close to finishing.
But I get a second chance at the assessment and if I'm only 24 hours late getting the 2 reports in I'll be happy.
happyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappyhappy

And then another 7 week placement.

The joys of part time study

Semester 1 is over, semester 2 is underway. That stress factor I mentioned last post was big enough for me to drop a subject which means I only finished 3 subjects last semester (with final marks good enough to keep me happy). That means I'm only doing ONE subject this semester and I'll finish the course mid next year. I can live with that.
I've now discovered the joy of part time study. I'm loving it. Stress free, low work load, plenty of time to have a job and make some money (and then spend it, I'd forgotten what it was like to spend money).
So my single placement starts on Tuesday at a family health clinic which should be interesting.
Once I've finished that I've got four weeks with NO SCHOOL! Might go on a holiday. Woohoo for part time!

Some peoples day in the office

I've been off the air for a while stressing about Uni and assignment writing. The stress hasn't changed, but I need a distraction (as if I can't manage that without resorting to the blog).
I've been told that after my earlier post about dying I should do one about birth. So...

I had a two week placement in the operating theatres of one of the big hospitals. I was really looking forward to this. I love seeing what goes on inside the body and I've found the gory bits don't faze me at all.
During the first week, when I was still just observing and doing a bit of basic scouting (retrieving items from the store for use in the procedure, "I need a .4 tapered vycral", "Sure... what's that?"), I got to see the birth by caesarian section of twins. After cutting through the epidermis, fat layer, muscles, the peritoneum, the uterus and finally the placental sac, the surgeon reached in and pulled out a baby girl, who started crying as soon as her head appeared, and then she reached in again and came out with a baby boy. Amazing.
Mum was stitched up (a set of stitches for each layer) and the midwives poked and prodded the placenta "that looks nice and healthy" and Dad, who was in there the whole time, stood around with a goofy smile cradling a baby in each arm.
If I was a woman would I get a caesarian by choice? NO WAY!

I really don't like study

So Uni is back on. One year to go with a pinprick of light visible at the end of the long dark tunnel of study. One week in and the verdict is...this year is going to hurt. But wait, that pinprick is getting brighter, closer...

Not sleeping, dying

Finally some work! Last friday I was called in to do a short shift in the oncology ward of a local private hospital. I've not come across death a lot in my life (haha) but on this ward there were two patients who were in palliative care and obviously very close to the end. In some ways it was quite confronting, but conversely I could also see why some nurses would choose to work in palliative care, helping to make peoples last months and days as tolerable as possible. I was asked to do oral hygiene on one of these patients as apparently one of the consequences of the body starting to fail is a painfully dry mouth. I went into the patient's room and saw that he was asleep. I went back to the RN and said "he's asleep, do you want me to wake him for this?" to which she replied "he's not asleep, he's unconscious." Oh.

Ouch that hurts

Last week I fell off my pushy. It hurt. It hurt a lot. It was dark, it was raining, I had no lights, I was half pissed, it involved a stationary object. I ended up nursing myself for a few days. This involved sleeping, moaning and talking to the dog a lot. It was all very therapeutic.

I couldn't walk for two days but, typically, the morning after the bingle the agency called me up for the first time in 4 weeks to offer me work.

On being a lazy student on holiday

I've been on holidays for 2 months now. In that time I think I've worked 6 shifts. The agency just hasn't been calling me. But then, I haven't been chasing the work either. When I have the opportunity to be lazy, let it come down. Oh yeeaah! The beach when it's hot, the TV when it's not. Of course the downside of this is that I'm a gutter grovelling pauper, sitting by the ATM every fortnight waiting for my austudy to come through so I can pay my rent and have a beer.
Job hunting? How about next week?

Sit down, relax...

...and try not to look so serious.