My Dream

I had a rather interesting dream the other night. I was out in York with my other half. Having been around most of the shops, and helping her choose a birthday present for her mum, we decided to head home. Good job I was sleeping, this is the average blokes idea of hell (however, it was time with her so it was all good).

I find myself at the train station. The train is late "Tree on the line at Huddersfield". Great, but hey, I only have to wait over half an hour. Lets find the platform. Oh great, its full. Hang on, turns out there is a service to Newcastle about to arrive before my train. Ahh, so this is not too much of a nightmare.

After a few moments, the train arrives and my mobile phone decides to go off. As I am trying to talk, the sound of the train leaving is drowning out the caller. I am dreaming this is along the lines of "Hi, it (whuur whuur whuur) from (huuummm) hospital (lound blast of train horn) interviewed really well (clack clack clack clack) on the ward?"
Now, its just a dream and undoubtedly this is just me getting the big fob off. Oh well, I can see in my dream there is a flight of steps up to a closed walkway where I can talk. After all, this was a hospital where a) I never worked and b) had my first interview on the 7th who phoned me on my birthday (last tuesday) to ask to give me people to phone as referances were slow comming through. Ok, I decided in my dream I wanted to fully explore the horror of this nightmare of being fobbed off. Much in the same way one may fully probe the site of a rotting tooth. I ascend the steps.
"Do go ahead" I say.
"Well, as you have experance of being a student within Diabetes and Endocrinology, we are offering you a job as a Staff Nurse on the diabetic and endocrinology ward in the hospital"
Bloody hell, this is great, lets keep dreaming.
"Yes, of course!"
"Right, well, it will be monday now before I can send the acceptance forms out, and it will be 6 to 8 weeks by the time your CRB check comes back and you can start on the ward".
"Thats no problem, thanks!"
"No problem, thanks for accepting!"
Ok, deep breath. Lets just see how long it takes for me to wake up and come back to reality.
Pretty much walking back down the stairs to find my other half looking at me and saying to her "I got the job" seemed to be a good point to stop dreaming and wake up. Which given that we both had to wait till near 5:20 for that sodding train which was 52 minutes late in the freezing cold and rain made sure there was no doubt about it.

So, 3 years training:Check
NMC Pin Number: Check
Job: Check

What makes this all the more delicious is that while I was turned down by 2 posts, one was going to re-interview me, the job I get was from my first interview.

So, I have moved. You will find me posting on the new blog. Just click HERE to visit!
See you on the new blog!

My roads end

So, as of 13:30 I officially left placement. It was odd. I began the day with finding many people on duty. This was mostly HCA and two staff Nurses working the early shift. I had to wait to find out what team I was working in. It was the bay I was in on Tuesday. There were only 4 patients in the bay and two side rooms to see to. I did the baseline observations and wrote the risk assessments at the same time (there was enough time for this to be done at the same time). There was not a lot to do after making the beds and the morning did seem to drag. Two urgent ECG's were done by yours truly. The visiting SpR was happy with my lead placement and thanked for a "Nice ECG". That was pleasing!

I was searching for an IVAC infusion pump for some of the morning and went two several surrounding departments to source one. It was odd when a Nurse from the ward next door asked when I was finished my training to be able to reply "28 minutes time!". The ward senior sister wrote me a very nice witness statement which I will copy for my upcoming interviews. Next week I have 3 days in the university. Tuesday is the RCN conference, Thursday is a day of information and Friday is a closing lecture and NMC registration day.

My more pressing concern is the fact my Girlfriend last night decided she wanted to try and end our relationship claiming that things "Were not fair" on me and she was "very sorry". I am not sure what to say as this is a blow that I really did not see coming. I know emotions were running high the last few days. Now, not only do I have a job to worry about, I now have this broadside hit to deal with. To say that I have taken this bad is an understatement. I feel sick in the pit of my stomach and I have hardly eaten anything. Come to think of it, I have not eaten much at all this past week. I cannot stop thinking of her, and wonder what it is I ever did wrong to her. Any of the female readers with any ideas of what you would suggest I do please leave a comment. I figure that the best thing will be to give her some space to calm down a bit.

Speaking of the comment and the blog, I realised some time ago that after next week this blog and my ID will be redundant. I do not want to start a new blog yet, so if you have any names for the new blog which I will go on to make, and feel free to leave comment. "Staff Nurse Musings" anyone?

So, if you are a student Nurse, and you are wondering what it is like in the third year, if you are a nurse and were looking for another persons view, or you ever should be a person in the future who was considering Nursing, I hope that my small entries have been both entertaining and useful. I am now at the end of three years. I have passed the course and this time next week will be able to say that I completed my three years of University. I shall be able to put RGN after my name in a few weeks time.

In recognition of that, the video link at the top is the one that finally I choose to accurately reflect the end of the course. I have climbed the mountain of nurse training. Somehow, I have survived.
And to all the people who took the time to read and to post: My profound thanks.

My football match

I have taken a study week to try and get some time off. I have asked about getting a job in a call centre (so those three years Nurse training look to have gone overboard). I got a letter this morning confirming that I have completed the requirements of the course, pending statutory hours being completed.

Only thing I did was a Football match with St. John Ambulance on Tuesday. I have over the years when with the Red Cross attended calls that are more suited to a "Carry on" film rather then "Casualty". There was one such happening while I was trying to treat a member of the public in the first aid post. I was seeing the patient while being hemmed into the corner by several SJA first aiders who were in their allotted time for a break, and a rather rotund divisional superintendent who was trying to make the tea.

I have started on my latest project for the British Ambulance Society (the details of the history of the local ambulance service) which came in helpful to one of the St John Cadets who is today in Liverpool for a Paramedic interview.

My weekend administration

This is my last day off having managed to have the weekend off the ward. I am back on tomorrow. The weekend has been up and down. Was out for a few hours last night and went to see a mate of mine as well as my girlfriend, and have been trying to sort out paperwork. Unfortunatly I have cut it fine for renewing my library loans but I think I have managed to avoid going over (not that having to pay £2 is a big deal).

I have been trawling CINAHL and the British Nursing Archive for some articles for an essay and fine tuning the next two submissions.

I am tonight going to start to write up my letters for application to the NHS trusts for the January qualifying. I am not sure what to put in the letter but will have a think. The trouble is "Gimme a job" being written in a fancy way usually means trying to sell yourself and I am not normally that vain. The plan is to go to all the departments in the hosptial and put a letter into the ward manager, write to the local PCT and fill in a generic application form to approach on three fronts in my own area, then go to a hospital in the next county to ask for a job. I have been told that my grandparents are wanting to move to the other end of the county, if that happens then there is always chance that there can be application made to other areas as well which will be nice, and I also want to contact a private aero-medical firm where I know the operations director. Then I will search Nursing standard and the NHS jobs website.