I did It!

YEP,  I passed first semester of first year. I didn't quite get the marks I wanted but gee am I happy.

I've put the text books away for e few weeks,

And I'm reading a fictional story. A nice change but I am looking forward to next semester. This will bring with it my first clinical placement which will be a wonderful hands on experience in aged care. I will get to put the skills I've learned into practice. 

Semester 1 of first year almost done

Wow, that was a whirlwind of a semester. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I have a week to study for hubs then do the exam and it's all over for 5 weeks. I have picked my stream for next semester so I know the dates I'll be out on my first clinical placement. I'm quietly excited and anxious at the same time.

THOUGHT I'd share a couple of piccies this time. Me on my first day of labs, loving my uniform (as you can see) and my tools of the trade. Must be colourful or I just wouldn't be having fun.....

Thanks for taking the time to read about my experiences as a nursing students. Will post again once I've done my exam. Hopefully, fingers crossed I will do well and can report on a positive result. xx

Big build up to wind down

It feels like there has been this massive build up to finish the first semester. I've had 2 lab sessions in 2 weeks (when it's usually only once every 3 weeks). Last Thursdays lab was an assessment on therapeutic communication, safe patient moving and hand hygiene.  I passed, and so did everyone else in my group. It appears to me that my university wants everyone to pass. I'm not sure that is such a good thing. I certainly wouldn't want an incompetent nurse looking after me if I was sick.

Anyway, all that is left this semester is to update my resume and right an application letter for a fake AIN position, write a report on my field study experience and do one exam for HUBS. Then it's 8 weeks of freedom. Yeehaa! I have been looking at my timetable for next semester and I have discovered that my favorite course (primary health care) is over after this semester, I thought it would continue through the second half of the year. Instead it is replaced with labs and clinical placement (which I am really looking forward to). I will miss learning about community health, it's history and thinking about its future and all its aspects. 

Changing my perspective

So, this first post will be fairly long because I am trying to bring you up to speed on 8 weeks of full time uni...

I only started my nursing degree a few weeks ago but I am already seeing things from a very different perspective than before I started. I can see now that I was a racist and very judgmental person. This is a big statement, I know but I am able to admit it now knowing that I have totally changed my thought process. 

What a starter Hey!  

One of my courses is called Primary Health Care and involves learning about social determinants of health, cultural competency, models of health such as the biomedical model and the social model, community development, the Australian Health care system, cultural identity and Indigenous Australians. Far out, that's a whole heap of topics. Oh I forgot to mention all the sociology components......  

All of these topics are viewed and understood differently by every person. This is understandable considering how diverse my community is and how differently everyone is raised. I have been lucky enough so far in my nursing degree to have had my eyes opened to all the aspects of these topics and can now see it all from a totally different perspective.

One major activity within this course is the 32 hour field study experience I have completed. This involved finding an organisation that is based on primary health care principles and spending time in that environment to get a closer look at how people less fortunate than I experience the world. Believe me, it has been a real eye opener and having an understanding of social determinants of health has helped me understand that the people I am working with and helping have very little control of the outcome of their lives. They rely on the help of volunteers at the organisation to provide the with the simplest of things like, food, showers and financial counseling and support. 

Ok, that's enough about that course, in case you hadn't guessed, Primary Health Care is my favourite course out of the three. The other two are Foundations of professional practice and Human bioscience (HUBS). Foundations seems to be mostly common sense and natural human behaviors. I am not sure all people possess these natural behaviors though. It seems strange to me that not everyone has it in them to show dignity, respect, provide person centered care, communicate therapeutically and create a therapeutic relationship with patients. To me, this is all about simply being nice to people. Go figure. I have to go through it all anyway to pass the course so I just plod along through it. This course also has the clinical labs component, where theory is put into practice. This is the part I enjoy, so far we have covered blood pressure and safe patient handling with our first assessment in the lab next week. Fingers crossed I pass.

HUBS is the third course and is all about anatomy and physiology. It covers topics like atoms and molecules that make up our tissues, osmosis, the nervous and endocrine systems, male and female sexual functions, reproduction, the immune system and its defenses, the muscular system, skeletal system, different tissue anatomy and physiology and cardiovascular system. I find this course quite interesting, what I learn I get to apply to actual case scenarios so it isn't just rote learning. 

I hope to post each week from now on to keep you up to speed on my experience as a student nurse at university in Australia.