My course comes to an end next week; I have three shifts left, and then that's it. I still have to do 500 hours of additional healthcare-related work experience over the Summer (I'll be picking up HCA shifts), but the education and training are coming to a close.
This last placement has been a bear, but I've enjoyed it. I'm in oncology, and it's tough. By the nature of the area, the patients can be very 'heavy' in the (frowned-upon, but universally-used) vernacular: complex problems, requiring frequent and time-consuming nursing interventions, at high risk of deterioration, and often bedbound. When the ward is understaffed - and it almost always is - you feel it. Each week I get it a little bit more, though, and I like working with cancer patients, so I have accepted a position to work in oncology once I qualify. It's nice to know where I will be.
I'm ready to be done. I can't say I feel adequately prepared to take on patients independently, but I am ready not to be a student nurse anymore. All nurses say you'll never feel confident until you've been doing it yourself for some time, and every ward has a training and mentorship programme for their newly-qualified nurses, so I won't be freely unleashed on an unsuspecting NHS population just yet. I am looking forward to more independence and developing my place in a team - and starting to get paid won't be so bad either.
With the end of the course will also come a covid-delayed holiday; Sushil and I will be going to Chile, Peru and Bolivia. New countries for both of us, and we know very little about any of them, so it feels like we're going very far away. I am looking forward to the mental distance from the everyday that foreignness and a long flight bring, and putting my Duolingo Spanish into use.
Also on the homefront, Sushil finally got covid. Very mild, and he feels 100% now, even though he's still testing positive. I've somehow fended it off this time (at least enough not to test positive myself). Hopefully this means our antibodies will be primed and at the ready to keep us healthy for the holidays.
Yo como manzanas,
Shaun
Sushil went back to India in April to see his family for the first time in three years. His grandma and her cat were particularly excited to see him.
I joined Natasha and Chris for a few days in Weymouth, Dorset, where Chris's parents have retired.
Chester has become a regular at our favourite local, The Horatia.
Shaun H. Coley ~ Holloway ~ Islington ~ London N7 ~ UK ~ shaunism.blogspot.co.uk
