Third year student nurse, ask me anything.

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There seems to be a lot of potential and current student nurses on here who have a lot of questions in the forums. I'm in my third year of my adult nursing degree, and I've worked in outpatients, medical/surgical wards, operating theatres and the community, and I'm starting in A&E this week. I might not get m(any) responses, but I'll answer any questions about anything to do with the course and placements, if anyone has any :smile:

Hello,

Im starting adult nursing next month at Coventry University.. Have a lot of free time right now so wanted to spend it wisely...

Any tips on what I could do.. pre reading (Which books or topics) or I have no idea aha

Thank youu :smile:

Reply 21

LIzzieWoo

Original post by katie-hughes

Cool when do you start?

A good topic from personal experience is pharmacology-we dont really get taught it or have formal sessions on them. You are expected to learn by yourself, but its so important. A good place to start is the painkillers- formally known as the analgesics. We use the analgesic ladder so we grade the painkillers from mild to the most strong, paracetamol, aspirin, NSAIDs (ie ibuprofen and naproxen) and the opioids (morphine, fentanyl, codeine phosphate) Even if it is just familarising with their names and which group of analgesics they belong to is a good start. I'm trying to learn as much as possible as a go along. Feel free to pm if you have more specific questions xx

My ultimate aim is to become a nurse prescriber. Good books are Essentials of pharmacology for nurses Barber and Robertson, Introducing Pharmacology for healthcare and Nursing , McFadden

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 22

katie-hughes

Original post by LIzzieWoo

Thank you! Just seen this & I start in 2 weeks! :smile:

When do you graduate?

Reply 23

moonkatt

Original post by LIzzieWoo

My ultimate aim is to become a nurse prescriber. Good books are Essentials of pharmacology for nurses Barber and Robertson, Introducing Pharmacology for healthcare and Nursing , McFadden

Being a nurse prescriber is a supplementary role, so usually nurses do their non medical or supplementary prescribing to enhance a specialist role of some sort, for example a diabetes specialist nurse. What areas of practice interest you in this way?

Reply 24

LIzzieWoo

Original post by katie-hughes

Thank you! Just seen this & I start in 2 weeks! :smile:

When do you graduate?

Nice, all the best in your studies!
I expect to get my pin in December or early january but graduation is probs next year july, not sure as they haven't decided yet.

Reply 25

LIzzieWoo

Original post by moonkatt

Yes I know. I'd like to have a good knowledge base of medications in some way shape or form. As to the specialty I did a project on diabetes; its management; pathophysiology type I and type II management and the DKA protocol which I found absolutely fascinating as it tied in so many aspects such are the what ketone and glucose levels are considered to be normal or critical, the need for potassium supplementation, strict fluid chart to monitor polyuria, fluid resuscitation and sliding scale insulin-very fascinating stuff. I also spent a day with the diabetes nurses in their clinic and learnt more about how they taught patients about glucose monitoring, adjusted their meformin doses for them, as well as teaching them about diet to supplement their control over their glucose control. I'm not 100% how you get into diabetes though, alot of nurses I've spoken said they just fell into their specialty. So alot of it really depends on as you gain more experience you will get a better understanding of your traits and what would personally suit you eventually.

My favourite placement so far has been the urology the team was absolutely supportive and there was a real sense of camaraderie, although the sister is always concerned about staff as they have a relatively high turnover and rely on agency nurses occasionally. Despite this I am pretty confident that I gained the most from this placement so far and I hope to return there for my final placement just to put everything into practice, patient discharges, pre and post surgical nursing, wound and dressing care- and hopefully get job offer. I am interested in how to manage bladder retention and look for the signs, fistula management, bladder washout if they have bladder cancer, stoma care for the ileal conduits,the occasional diabetic foot ulcers and discharging patients timely (ensuring that occupational health has approved their living arrangements on time to reduce bed blockages-easier said that done!) and ensuring they get their TTAs within a reasonable time frame!

I suppose I could work my way up to a CNS in urology or a urinary diversion nurse. But with diabetic clinical nurse specialists whats the route for them? Do they mainly work in general practice first ? I guess if I end up in urology i wouldn't have the option of moving into diabetes?, even though we do have diabetes as a co morbidity, its not where the main nursing care lies.

I don't know really to be honest I'd like to get a better understanding of medications just because we dont have lectures on it and I just rely on self study so I would be more confident if there was some formal teaching or at least assessment so that I can be assured that what I have learnt is actually correct! I did express my concern to the programme manager of the pre registration nursing programme and they became really defensive saying that there is so many medications there is not enough time to over everything and besides you are not in medical school. We provide you with PDF handouts of the general medications for self study and evidence shows that people learn more effectively through independent study- if we have lectures lots of people will not retain the info.

Instead, I'm currently doing my final module and we are doing group presentations on compassionate care, personal and professional development and the therapeutic relationship between the nurse and the patient. For our assessment it will be a 2000 word reflective essay on how we felt we did as a team, as a manager and as a leader to produce these presentations and develop creative and original ways of implementing this in the future to develop and further our practice once we graduate. I know this is important but we focus on so much on compassion, empathy and nursing theory but we have no lectures on anatomy or pharmacology. I was informed that nursing skills would be covered in the preceptorship, but why wait, while we are students and not have as much responsibilities we could be going through the IV theory, for example, and be able to hit the ground running during the preceptorship period. Anyway rant over, my focus in the next few weeks is looking into articles about nursing leadership for the essay.

Reply 26

elmosandy

Original post by lou987

English Language, Psychology and Sociology :smile:

It would have been good to do Health and Social Care a level or BTEC imo

Reply 27

moonkatt

Original post by LIzzieWoo

There's always scope to move within nursing, it may be more difficult to move between specialist roles. The route into becoming a DSN it's complicated, you just need to either work in an environment like a diabetes or endocrine ward, or work closely with the DSNs as a link nurse, all wards have diabetes link nurses as it's such a widespread disease that we encounter in hospital. It's good that you've taken such an in depth interested in diabetes, it's a shame more people don't. The level of understanding around diabetes is generally poor.

Original post by LIzzieWoo

I don't know really to be honest I'd like to get a better understanding of medications just because we dont have lectures on it and I just rely on self study so I would be more confident if there was some formal teaching or at least assessment so that I can be assured that what I have learnt is actually correct! I did express my concern to the programme manager of the pre registration nursing programme and they became really defensive saying that there is so many medications there is not enough time to over everything and besides you are not in medical school. We provide you with PDF handouts of the general medications for self study and evidence shows that people learn more effectively through independent study- if we have lectures lots of people will not retain the info.

Instead, I'm currently doing my final module and we are doing group presentations on compassionate care, personal and professional development and the therapeutic relationship between the nurse and the patient. For our assessment it will be a 2000 word reflective essay on how we felt we did as a team, as a manager and as a leader to produce these presentations and develop creative and original ways of implementing this in the future to develop and further our practice once we graduate. I know this is important but we focus on so much on compassion, empathy and nursing theory but we have no lectures on anatomy or pharmacology. I was informed that nursing skills would be covered in the preceptorship, but why wait, while we are students and not have as much responsibilities we could be going through the IV theory, for example, and be able to hit the ground running during the preceptorship period. Anyway rant over, my focus in the next few weeks is looking into articles about nursing leadership for the essay.

Unfortunately, with the pre reg programme there's an awful lot of content competing for space in the relatively short space of time there is. I don't think there is enough emphasis on clinical skills, but this is in part why you have placements in clinical environments. The problem with this is that the quality of placement can vary massively. I've encountered third year students who can't undertake simple clinical procedures that I learnt in the first year because they've never been exposed to it on the placements they've had. Unfortunately, demand outstrips supply with placements where I am, so students are squeezed into places where they can fit them, sometimes this may be in a completely inappropriate placement for them and they end up not getting what they could have from their placement which is a massive shame, because there's usually something to be gained form every placement environment you go to.

I could go on about nurse education for hours, but it would lead your thread off topic a bit and I have to make dinner in a bit :smile:

Reply 28

Zobo

Hi there, congrats on getting to third year!

I wanted to ask as a first year if you ever had an issue with the assignments? I've passed most so far but just submitted one and I must admit I was disappointed with it - I felt I couldn't express myself in the way I wanted within the word count. I'm terrified of failing it - do you find there is support if you find things difficult?

Thanks!

Reply 29

hassy118

I start Nursing on January 2017 and i am scared, frightened and terrified. Is there anything I can study before hand because i have free time on me.

Im more concerned about the exams and failing them and being kicked out of uni.

Reply 30

wbnurse

Original post by hassy118

Not a major help as I'm only 6 months in but at the minute I'd say the hardest thing for me is a&p and we have a fair few a&p exams! So you could do some studying on that?? Any Qs for your initial start please feel free to message me :smile:

Reply 31

wbnurse