So it’s been a while since I updated anything on here and been even longer since I wrote anything about my nurse training. I got so caught up in the stress of a paid placement and finishing assignments that I neglected this little place of mine on the internet. I am now back and a lot has been going on.
Placement
I think the last time I mentioned placement I was waiting to hear back about my extended placement and getting totally stressed out seeing others starting and getting band 4 pay. Since then I got given my placement on a #NOF ward, thankfully at my local hospital, not the trusts other one miles away. I got no choice in this placement, I was joking I’d end up on an elderly ward and I did. In a way I am thankful for this as it wasn’t a ward I would ever have considered working on but I ended up liking it and will go back for bank shifts. I also ended up with a band 3 contract for only 30 hours a week rather than 37.5, meaning I’d have hours to make up once the placement ended, I also wasn’t given an end date so I could be finished with my placement at anytime. After much back & forth, I eventually got an end date of 20th September. Bare in mind that the NMC & HEE changed things and decided to stop paid placement after 31st July or 31st August for those starting later (me), my trust also guaranteed my hours till 20th September. I’d since heard (after my placement ended) that 2 of my cohort’s paid placements ended 31st August and they weren’t allowed to finish their hours.
My actual placement was well, bluh. The 1st two weeks were great, I was supernumerary and felt like a student. Once those 2 weeks ended, things changed. Practice education realised I should have been on a band 4 contract but they couldn’t change it & the ward manager was unclear how to place me on MAPS and in the numbers. As a final/management placement student I should have been having my own patients, running my own bay etc. For 1/2 my shifts I was down as a student the rest as a HCA, never as a nurse. I suspect the ward manager didn’t want to effectively be down a nurse on those shifts. For about 90% of my shifts I was a HCA regardless of my status in MAPS. If the ward was down a HCA then I was placed in that bay so it was just me & the nurse. A lot of the time that meant I was a HCA for the shift, it all depended on who the nurse was. Sometimes I would do things like the medication rounds as well as everything else. It got to the point where I just went in to do my hours.
I also rarely spent time with my assessor. Thankfully I was with a great nurse one shift that was very slow so we managed to get loads of things signed off but I was struggling with the things that only my assessor could sign. Either he wasn’t on the same shift as me or he was in charge. I did manage to complete everything but it was a rush at the end and I was basically just emailing him documents to complete to then email to uni.
Assignments
During this time, I was become very withdrawn, I felt everyone was against me and I eventually removed myself from the uni whatsapp group. I wasn’t getting any help form anyone anyways and they would either ignore me or attach me (or so I felt). We were having zoom meetings with uni during this time, not all I could attend, so I’d have to listen to the recording. One I attended people were complaining about a submission date, that it was too close and it was too hard with working full time etc. They ended up getting the date pushed back & I got no say in the matter. These were the same people who wanted to be full time but were also complaining about being full time! This new date ended up being closer to our final 2 modules so I don’t really know what they got out of it. I submitted that assignment on the original due date.
This wasmby best year for marks by a far. I managed 81% in one and only got below a 2:1 in one.
Finishing uni
Our final classification came on 14th December. We basically already knew what we would get as we had already received all our marks, so some calculations would have given you the result. Before this date certain students would be letting everyone know about their assignment results but only over a certain %. Come the time to get their classification no one mention anything other than they had qualified. I can only assume their didn’t get the classification they expected. These 2 people ended up with a 2:1 so I suspect they expected a 1st. I think only 2 or 3 students got a 1st. I was aiming for a 2:2 but came out with a 2:1.
