For any of you that don't know, being a student nurse is tough.
You may hear from people you know who are nurses, or friends and families of those who are, that a job of a nurse is challenging. Long hours, pay which doesn't allow for rent payments, no social life and on top of all that patients may even pee on you. Think this is bad? Well, let me assure you, being a student nurse is worse. And I don't mean that it is all bad, because us aspiring nurses are all here because we want to make a difference in patient's lives, but it defiantly is a challenging 3 years!
I can tell you this because I, myself am a student nurse here in the UK. I'm at the very end of my first year of training and let me tell you, it has not been an easy ride.
This is exactly why I have decided to start writing this blog. There have been countless times throughout my placement, I have arrived at work at 7.15am to start a shift with a smile on my pillow creased face, for it to be gone and replaced with dripping sweat and sometimes even tears just minutes later. When you finally arrive home sometime you just need to vent!
Today was one of those days. I arrived at work to find out that on a 32-bed, cardio-thoracic surgery ward, there were only 3 qualified nurses who have managed to turn in today. Splitting the patients in 3 meant that out nurse-patients ratios were 1 to 11! If you are a nurse, student nurse or have any idea about how hospitals are run here in the UK, you will probably know that a ratio this high is a real challenge on a surgical ward.
The decision of becoming a nurse for me, was not made light heartily, I knew that some days were going to be a real slog, and that what we are essentially doing is serving other people but looking after 11 patients who have just recently had heart surgery and require your help with almost every aspect of their normal living topped with dressing changes, medication and clinical observations, is almost impossible.
The sad thing about today's situation was that I was very afraid of my patients being neglected by us in some way. None of the team who I work with would ever neglect anyone purposely, but those things happen sometimes. You know the cute little gentlemen you see around sometimes, who you just want to hug and call granddad when you see them? Well, we have many of those on our ward, they are great fun, they are lovely people, but they are also very polite. When they see you running from top to bottom of the ward, bringing commodes, handing out extra blankets, taking people to and from x-rays, a lot of the time they think it's rude to ask for your attention and request some pain relief, even though they may be in agony.
Coming on a shift like today's makes me sad because although I try my best I may not have the time to ask every single of my patients whether their pain is well controlled and whether they are comfortable in bed.
This has been my biggest struggle since starting placement for the majorly understaffed NHS.
If anyone reading this is in a similar situation, and has any useful tips I would love to hear some of your comments. At the end of the day, us nurses are there to help each other :)
(just a little picture which made me chuckle :))
Lots of love
Student nurse UK
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