Ryan's Blog

This week I rang Staffordshire University in reference to the Paramedic Science course that they offer.

The conversation that took place consisted of me asking about the course. I was advised that this is a fifty, fifty course between placement and Theory based learning. The reason I would like to go for the degree is I feel it gives more experience and continues my education. I want to be a paramedic as I feel it is a very different and exciting career. The aspect of potentially saving someones life is very thrilling.

I think that paramedics make a big difference to the community and help people in their time of need. Staffordshire university advised that due to my good amount of placement hours on my CACHE course, I am in good stead for a good interview and a conditional offer. Once I get my conditional offer i think i will be able to relax abit more as I know I will do well with my CACHE grades.

1. The first thing that I have learned about The World Skills Show is that it helps employers and teacher/lecturers to promote student’s skills.
2. The second thing I have learned is that The World Skills Show offers is access to a wide network of employers and tools to help young people gain experience and career opportunities in the departments they are interested in this includes over 45 skills and trades.
3. The World Skills Show is a non-profitable organisation The world skills show has a vision which is to improve the world with skills.
4. The World Skills Show has a history going back to 2011.
5. The World Skills Show has 75 different countries and regions as members.
6. The World Skills Show keeps people up to date with frequent newsletters.
7. The world Skills Show offers training to teachers and students to help better different trade sectors.
8. Competitions are assessed by judges and winners are awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze.
9. It will be held in Abu Dhabi 2017.
10. Students often stay in places they wouldn’t usually go for the show.

Mental health nurses are usually hospital based however they can also work with service users in the community. Nurses who work within the hospital can work in: Psychiatric ICU, Psychiatric wards, Outpatients Unit, Eating disorder Units, Community based Nurses, GP Surgery, Community health care center, Prison and  Patients homes

As a mental health nurse you will frequently work as part of a team with other professionals and agencies such: GP’s, Psychologists, Social workers, and Art Therapist.

Communication skills are crucial to the job role as you need to constantly engage in team discussions and one to way conversation with the service user. They must also have a good knowledge of the mental health and illness theories and apply it in practice. You must be able to show real empathy with the service user but not become too attached with the individual. A risk of violence is often associated with mental health nursing and psycho-social, communication and observational skills are needed to be able to notice when the risk is increased and then be able to defuse the situation.

What?

My application process was long due to the paperwork and interview. However, this made me feel determined as it felt professional. I was trying to achieve the role of working within the inpatient unit and I was successful with this which made me feel very happy. I had to fill out a lot of paper work but it was worth it. This paper work was Dougie mac’s policy form and the DBS check forms. These forms were not hard to fill out but just took up time, which I expected for an application day. The woman that greeted me was lovely and welcoming and had a big smile on her face, which definitely helped. When it came to the interview process, I was asked a few questions on how I would react in certain situations – I just told the truth and she was happy with my answers. One of the questions I was asked is why I want to volunteer at Dougie Mac and I replied with because I want to help and care for people.

So what?

My actions were filling out the paperwork and taking a tour around Douglas Macmillan. It was a beautiful place, was very clean, and tidy which pleased me. My new understanding of the subject is just how clean and tidy healthy care environments needs to be. I also saw alot of the nurses and how they organise their day. They seem to check up on patient’s alot, which reassured me they really care about their job. However, during my time at Dougie Mac I filled out my DBS forms which was fine, but shortly after (2-3 days) I received a phone call to say that I hadn’t filled out my DBS correctly and I needed to use block capitals I was disappointed with myself for not spotting this on the form. Overall, I think I was very polite and dressed formally enough for my application day. My only obstacle is I now have to wait for the DBS to be resent in the post so I can fill it out correctly and send it back.

Now what?

The next course of action I need to take is filling out the new DBS that has been sent in the post and sending it back to Dougie Mac, this should be ok this time as I only need to use capitals and the rest was fine. Then I just need to wait for my DBS check to come back in the post so I can begin my placement there. I am very excited for this and I think it will be and experience/opportunity of a lifetime. I will continue to smartly dress and ensure that I fill out any paper work correctly by double-checking what it is asking.

My first day was the 7th of December 2016 when I started at the Douglas Macmillan Hospice and it was brilliant.

At the Douglas Macmillan Hospice, I have felt very welcomed and really felt a part of the team. I love interacting with the service users and being on the front line of their care. Caring for them makes me feel like a good person and it really helps to extend my medical knowledge.  I have seen all various sorts of Health and Social care workers, this really helps me with my college work as what I am writing about I can relate to from my placement. During my time on placement, I have not felt like it was a mundane task, it is very enjoyable and I really do enjoy going. When I first started at Douglas Macmillan Hospice I was worried I would not enjoy it as I wanted to be a paramedic. Being hospital based never really interested me. However, being Hospice based has given me an insight to the nursing and Health Care assistant’s role and this has made me feel more inquisitive about the two.

For a start the health care assistants are a lot more hands on and have one-to-one contact with the patient, I like this aspect as you really do feel like you are being involved in their care. Seeing the patients happy after receiving care is also brilliant as you feel you have made a big difference to that patient’s day.

The hospice can be sad due to the amount of ill people you see, but this has just started to motivate me to help the best I can so that I can give that patient a good chance of feeling better. My medical knowledge has extended vastly as before I barely knew any medical conditions and now I know a lot about loads of them.

The most recent one I have learned about is lymphedema, I spent the day with two lymphedema nurses and they were very friendly, I went to the patient’s houses and to see the way people live with their illnesses was fascinating for me. I learned that lymphedema is an illness of the lymphatic system not working correctly, this is either caused by damaged lymph nodes or physical damage. This then causes the lymphatic system to incorrectly store the lymph in an area of the body; this is usually when the person is immobile. This causes the leg to go hard and swell drastically.

At my placement I have to remain professional and take out my piercings, I then have to wear their health care assistant uniform which is a white tunic. This makes me feel professional and helps patients to trust me.

I love talking to the patients and making sure their okay. When you get them something to eat or change their clothes they are very thankful which makes me happy.

Overall, my experience here has been very positive and I look forward to continuing my work there.

My week in college went very well this week, I feel I have engaged in the lessons a lot and have been a positive influence to my other class mates.

This week I have started my assignment about ‘Life events’ I have enjoyed writing this assignment very much. However, due to the length of this assignment it has caused me some stress as to meet the dead line I have had to write a lot every day. The assignment focuses on different life events that happen to us during our life time. These events include marriage, divorce, education, illness, and many more.

I have struggled to write a lot about each event but I am getting there as I am now on my sixth page. 

I also had parents evening this week which went very well, I have 100% attendance and excellent in all topics on my report which my parents were very proud of. My aim now is to maintain this and progress further.

This is my quick review about how it went making my first blog and creating my account.

Making the blog only took me around five minutes to complete. However, finding a username that was not already taken was a challenge! I began my blogging journey by simply entering the style of my blog and the layout of my page. After that I simply entered my email, username, and password and signed in to find quite a confusing blog layout! After around twenty minutes of playing around I finally got to grasps with this website and how to use it. Now that I know how to use it I feel I will never forget and it will be useful in documenting any college related projects.

In conclusion, I have managed to create my blog and to get it the way that I want it to look, this is a huge relief as that is the hard part done and now I can focus on writing about anything I feel may be relevant to put on here.

-Ryan