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!
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
guacamole + toast + 2 eggs
Spinach + bean salad + mushroom + orange pepper
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.
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.
So I had a meltdown as at Christmas event on Sunday. I don’t know what really went on I don’t remember much of it. One min I’m having a great time the next I’m in tears and feeling all alone. I can’t face seeing the people I was with that day (other than OH) or going to that pub for a long time. In fact, I don’t even want to leave the house. I called in sick for my placement yesterday and cancel my bank shift for today. Now I need to make up those hours and that pay.
Speaking of pay, I have no idea how I am going to pay the bills in January or the CCJ if I get one. One thing going my way (I think) is that I might be able to push the ccj back to January by saying I can’t do the mediation on 12th December. I can’t see I’d get a court date for December. Also, Moriarty never show up to court so it goes against them.
I’m feeling very down at the moment, not saying much at all and looking distant.
One good piece of news. I got my final uni marks yesterday and I got 88% on one of the components!!! I’ve never had anything like that before. Due to having 2 very poor marks, my overall grade will be sitting on the border of 2:2/2:1 but I’m happy with that. On;y the OSCE to come back but no-one ever fails that.
As you can see my marks are average. PCP was a load of crap 🙁 The units that are PASS are only pass or fail. Annoying as the pass exam I got 100% and only needed 80% to pass. I am a solid 2:2 student so far. I’d like 2:1 but I don’t really have the motivation for it and don’t necessarily need a classification to go on to further study for nursing, some do ask for 2:1/2:2 some just ask you to be a register nurse.
Year 2 marks
So far I have only gotten one mark back 49%, I have another due back next week. The first half of this academic year has been mostly placements and lessons. The exams, coursework and OSCE are all in October/November.
I did, however, have a practice drug calculation test and got 100% only need 90% I think this year. What I am really stressing over is the OSCE, last year I failed the first attempt. This year it sounds better as we have 5 stations at 12 mins each and need to only gain 20 out of 40 marks with nothing compulsory like last year.
I am currently on my third placement, a short 3 weeks on a surgical ward (digestive diseases). I don’t know why but I get nervous every second I’m on the ward, mainly thinking that I need to know everything which I don’t. Three weeks should fly by though.
I’ve always thought I’d had things going on in my head, I just was good as suppressing them. I’d have down days, feel depressed, not want to leave the house or do anything days.
I think it has started to come to ahead this year. During my first placement in ED in March/April I was doing only the things I HAD to do. I was cancelling bank shifts left right & centre. The bank team at the hospital didn’t like this so I was let go, thankfully I have other employment but that isn’t any better.
In June I stopped going to uni, I just wanted to be in my ‘happy place’ the gym. I would, however, carry on with my assignments and eventually start my second placement but did little else. The placement went well and I was waiting to start my HCA bank job at the new trust.
Placement ended on the 26th July and I eventually got onto the bank the following week. As I did an induction in June my official start date is June. Since finishing my second placement I have only worked two shifts despite having been booked on my many more. I’d leave the house in the morning, get almost there, then cancel the shifts. I was just going round in circles.
The thing is I can’t afford NOT to be working.
I had a great opportunity to work loads throughout August but worked three shifts in total!
Things really came to a head about a week ago, I didn’t know what I wanted to do or if I wanted to keep going, this is still being sorted out and the person involved is really a nasty person.
Thankfully I have a lovely support network at home, and I will get through this. I have pushed everything away for so long I can continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
