Fitness Finance Life – My life through fitness + wealth

This time next month

uni January 30, 2020January 30, 2020 by admin

Since I last posted about starting to apply for NQN posts, I have been talking to a few people at different trusts and heard back from applications.

29th Feb 2020

WSHT my local trust as a recruitment day at both Worthing & St Richards (Chichester). I have been in contact with someone at St Richards about theatre positions which I am interested in. I didn’t realise that the day would be at both sites so I am trying to find out what positions are available at Worthing currently as I would prefer there to Chichester but I don’t want just any jobs.

19th March 2020

Portsmouth has a recruitment day and I have been asked to tell them the areas I am interested in. I don’t particularly want to work at Portsmouth but if that was where the role is I’ll take it to start.

So far I have yet to hear from Brighton but I haven’t seen any specific NQN recruitment post.

I have been speaking to someone in my cohort who was telling me that cohort 1, who have just qualified, are still waiting for the go-ahead to apply for their pins! So looking like a March start date. Not sure if you can start as a NQN on a band 3 or 4 before you can even apply for your pin or only when you are awating it.

So 2.5 months of nothing, as long as I don’t need to repeat. Apparently one of the modules is really hard and quiet a few in cohort 1 had to repeat and they only got their results yesterday. As long as I can still work as a HCA till March I’ll be fine.

3rd year placements

uni January 22, 2020January 22, 2020 by admin

I’m not one to just wait around, too many times things haven’t been done when they should and delays have happened. Due to this since December 2019 I have been checking our uni cohort placement spreadsheet to see if it was updated.

13th January, it finally looked like things were happening. There was an extra page, even if it was only named ‘sheet 3’ at that point. Excited, I clicked on the page and saw a list of our names next to dates and placement names. I scanned down the page, looking for my name. Finally, I spotted it but my placement was TBC. All but 2 of us had placement confirmed. I am the only one of my cohort in my placement area and assumed, therefore, it was easier to arrange for me. May be due to me going direct to the NHS trust asking for specific placements, there is a delay. I really hope I don’t get a community placement, not many do in 3rd year. In my cohort, there is probably only 4-5, with the rest mostly in ITU.

I start back at uni in just over 1 week and start placement in 5 weeks. I hope it’s not last minute, I know a few last year who didn’t know till like 1 week before.

Getting that job

I have officially registered onto my final year of nursing, this means I’m a soon to qualify nurse! I can now start applying for roles.

Some people may say it’s too early to be doing this but I know of people who have received job offers in October with a start date of the following September. I see it as more opportunities to land that role, especially if you want to work in a certain area.

I’ve applied to 3 or 4 in Worthing/Chichester, 1 in Brighton, and even one in Portsmouth. I’m just hoping that a job I want comes up, I really don’t see myself in elderly care.

I can’t be that picky though and I will accept pretty much any job. It’s best to have multiple offers rather than none at all.

Not sure if anyone in my cohort has started applying yet. I know some won’t for a while. To think that by March I could have my first role as a NQN!

I can’t be a healthy eating blog.

life January 19, 2020January 21, 2020 by admin

You’ll find most healthy eating or lifestyle bloggers eating low fat this low fat that. Sharing pictures of their acai or smoothy bowls and saying vegan is the way to go. I’m most definitely not one of them.

I don’t eat much fruit, for one it’s expensive and I’m not much of a fan of most of it.

I am looking to be more healthy but for me, some people are only joining the latest ‘trend’ and have no clue about food. I don’t pretend to know anything either, I just know what I like, don’t like and don’t want to be thinking ‘oh let me check the ingredients before eating that’.

I’m not a batch cook person, I’ll make my dinners on the night, I think I’m too lazy for this to be honest.

Trendy things I don’t like:

acai bowls
smoothies/smoothie bowls
juices
nuts
seeds
yoghurts
fruit – all cooked & tinned, most fresh fruit
almond milk
soya milk
protein powders
granola – can’t stand raisins or sultanas
protein bars – most

Things I do like:

veggies/salads – a select few
fish
meats
dairy
ready meals – shock!
fruit – apples (only granny smiths), lemons, lime, berries & cherries, bananas

20200119 120213 902x1024 - I can't be a healthy eating blog. — guacamole + toast + 2 eggs

20200118 110100 768x1024 - I can't be a healthy eating blog. — Spinach + bean salad + mushroom + orange pepper

20200115 120950 768x1024 - I can't be a healthy eating blog. — Spinach + mexican beans + teriyaki mackeral

So I am trying to be healthy. I don’t do dressings on the side or only eat half a chicken breast. I try and make my meals high protein. Oh and I usually don’t have breakfast, I start to eat anytime after 10am, it isn’t the most important meal of the day.

I am aiming to make a sensible choice as all meals but if I want dairy or red meat I’ll have it.

Working day

10am – boiled egg + cereal bar
14pm – salad + chicken or fish + lots of dressing
22pm – ready meal

Uni day

7am – protein bar
12pm – salad + chicken or fish + cheese
18pm – dinner + lots of veg

Day off

10am – egg + spinach + mushroom
13pm – salad + veg or cheese on toast
18pm – dinner + lots of veg or ready meal if OH is working late

I have days where I go over my calories, days where I don’t get much protein in. I track my calories & macos with MFP and think it is a great tool get people starting to understand the food they eat.

Things aren’t going to plan

life January 15, 2020January 15, 2020 by admin

My anxiety has been a cloud all around me these past few weeks. I’m able to get out of the house but if it’s something I don’t want to do, like going to work, I want to hide from the world.
I need to know exactly what is going on & what is going to happen. If it’s something new to me, I want to freak out and I don’t know what to do.

I’ve cancelled a ‘few’ shifts with one job this year and now I’m only able to book 24hrs ahead. I went into Brighton last Saturday ready to throw myself into a shift on a ward I’d never worked at before but before I’d even gotten off the bus I had decided not to go. Strangely I wasn’t freaking out about doing the shift or the fact that I had just blown it off. I decided to cancel my next 2 shifts due to a cold/flu basically spending all my time in bed over the weekend.
It was on Monday when I was enquiring about shifts for this Friday that I got an email with an attached letter, dated 6th January, stating that I had had all my shifts cancelled and I was only to book 24hrs before! If I had actually gone in for that Saturday shift I would have been turned away anyway.

Since then I have booked a shift for tonight and waiting on confirmation of a shift for tomorrow night. I have also been approved and started at the agency I recently joined. I have a shift Saturday night and then earlies all next week. The pay isn’t as good as the hospital for nights & weekends but it is for days and it’s more local. I am going to give this a try if I don’t like the care home I just won’t go back.

I am still waiting on a date to go for my induction at the private hospital. They asked for my availability in Feb, so I gave them that and also said I’m free the rest of January. Haven’t heard back just yet.

To top things off, I have gone into my OD which I can’t afford to get out of. My food order was meant to be paid on PayPal credit (yes I know bad me) but in fact, it came out of my bank account and I have no money other than like £12 cash for the rest of the month. Thankfully My jobs are weekly paid so I’ll have money next Friday & I get my student loan start of Feb.

Year 3 timetable

uni January 12, 2020January 12, 2020 by admin

So we have had our timetable published for a few weeks now and I forgot to blog about it.

There was no announcement about it, I just happen to continuously check on all things uni (placement post coming soon) and I think I stumbled onto it at the same time as the uni for publishing/working on it. At first, I saw weeks of 4 or 5 days in uni, not something I’d like, what with needing to also work. Thankfully, it turns out there is 1 wk of 5 days & even then I don’t have to go to 2 of them. In total, I have only 9 weeks at uni from Feb to July and then that’s me finished for university for good. I do have 18 weeks of placement after that though.

Strangely, no-one has mentioned anything about the timetable in the main group chat. I have now stopped notifications but no-one has posted since 3rd or 5th December. Usually, as soon as something pops up from uni, someone is asking about it. In my little group chat, no one has mentioned it there either, but they have been talking about an email we got about placements that didn’t make sense.

No-one appears to have noticed that placements have already been allocated either. I’ve mentioned it to one person but they haven’t gotten back to me yet. I think they are on holiday til uni starts.