Nearly Qualified

Silverdragon102, BSN · Mar 30, 2005

Hi all. due to qualify this September, just wondering if any of you other student nurses feel like you dont know enough?.
Do you know what speciality (if any) you want to work in? I have really enjoyed cardiology.
Would love to hear back from anybody xx

Don't worry about not knowing enough, your learning really starts now as you have a chance to specialise in an area that you like, I loved medicine but found I missed surgery which I loved as a student. Just remember that if you don't like an area to try somewhere else not just think about how much you hate it but put up with it.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do :Melody:

sofaraway04 · Mar 31, 2005

I'm not there yet, graduating in 2006 (all being well).

But i've talked to quite a few 3rd years and all of them feel the same about not knowing enough or being ready. Haven't met anyone who's confident about being qualified.

Speaking to staff nurses many of them have said that you learn the most in the first 6 months of being qualified than at any other time.

For deciding where to apply to work, if you're not sure then maybe you could look into rotational jobs. would give you a chance to expereince several different areas and might give you a better idea of where you would like to work.

good luck

Nikki

unikaz · Mar 31, 2005

Thanx for the advice, I think you are right that everybody feels the same way, i know that most of my cohort at uni do. Sometimes think that our nurse education doesn't prepare us very well. I think I was lucky being a HCA first, and sort of knew what to expect. My cohort has diminished by half and there are only 40 of us left to hopefully qualify in Sept.

At the moment my local trust has a freeze on jobs so I think I will have to take any job I can get!! :uhoh3:

karenG · Apr 1, 2005

hey- I've been qualified 23 yrs this september and I still feel I dont know enough!

There will always be something you dont know...... its having the courage to stick up your hand and say 'I dont know'. thats what working within youre level of competency is all about.........

I think if you put me in a hospital now... I'd probably kill people with my incompetency!!! I havent the first clue how any of the gadgets work.......! I'm quite safe in general practice with my trusty mercury sphyg!

Karen

uk_nurse · Apr 6, 2005

hey- I've been qualified 23 yrs this september Karen

WOW!!!! what a long time, cant imagine me being in nursing that long. i have only been qualified 2 yrs and work on a paeds ward. love to work as a HV in community just waiting to see if i got sponsorship to do the course. Congratulations on 23 yrs bet u seen a load of changes.

karenG · Apr 6, 2005

WOW!!!! what a long time, cant imagine me being in nursing that long. i have only been qualified 2 yrs and work on a paeds ward. love to work as a HV in community just waiting to see if i got sponsorship to do the course. Congratulations on 23 yrs bet u seen a load of changes.

yeah............ I've been a nurse longer than you've been alive probably!!

yes... seen lots of changes and not all for the good!! when I was a student(can you hear the rocking chair creak?) we had 2 sisters, 5-6 staff nurses, 2-3 enrolled nurses plus students- usually about 10 of us!! to each ward. sister was like God...! you didnt go on duty with make-up, jewelery- only wedding rings allowed. no nail varnish and black tights. we were sent home if not in correct uniform. we worked a 40hr week.. and I was running the ward by the middle of my second year. we did 4hrly back rounds.. I never sent a patient home with a pressure sore (which happens all the time now!) we did 4hrly obs rounds. drug rounds were done by a qualified nurse and a student- you had to know every drug in the trolley! we knew our patients... all the patients on the ward.. all 36 of them. I can still make up a bed for any evenuality!! when I did the extended/supplementary prescribing course, we spent a morning in the skills lab.. us old lags had a bed making competion... and we spent a happy hour making up theatre packs, admission packs etc.... do you still make up theatre packs on beds?? what was interesting is that though we all trained in different hospitals we all made the beds the same way!!

there are other changes.. and to be honest I dont think patients get the same level of care today as we gave.. but a lot of that is because today there is a problem with staffing levels... to run on the levels that wards are expected run on today would have been unacceptable when I trained. even on night duty we had 4 nurses.. usually 2 staff nurse and 2 students. as students we rotated onto nights from the second year on.

ok.. I'll quit with the granny talk!!

Karen

unikaz · Apr 7, 2005

I kinda wish we were trained that way. We spend so much time in uni learning about things that I feel aren't always relevant. We don't learn the practical things we need to know, and sometimes on placement It's hard to learn. It's not the nurses fault, if there is just three of them on duty, maybe a bank nurse, no HCA's they just don't have the time for students, and if you're like me you just get stuck in and do what you can. I know nurses that have only been qualified for a few months that are given students to mentor!

Maybe I should stop moanning :rolleyes:

karen

letina · Apr 7, 2005

yeah............ I've been a nurse longer than you've been alive probably!!
yes... seen lots of changes and not all for the good!! when I was a student(can you hear the rocking chair creak?) we had 2 sisters, 5-6 staff nurses, 2-3 enrolled nurses plus students- usually about 10 of us!! to each ward. sister was like God...! you didnt go on duty with make-up, jewelery- only wedding rings allowed. no nail varnish and black tights. we were sent home if not in correct uniform. we worked a 40hr week.. and I was running the ward by the middle of my second year. we did 4hrly back rounds.. I never sent a patient home with a pressure sore (which happens all the time now!) we did 4hrly obs rounds. drug rounds were done by a qualified nurse and a student- you had to know every drug in the trolley! we knew our patients... all the patients on the ward.. all 36 of them. I can still make up a bed for any evenuality!! when I did the extended/supplementary prescribing course, we spent a morning in the skills lab.. us old lags had a bed making competion... and we spent a happy hour making up theatre packs, admission packs etc.... do you still make up theatre packs on beds?? what was interesting is that though we all trained in different hospitals we all made the beds the same way!!
there are other changes.. and to be honest I dont think patients get the same level of care today as we gave.. but a lot of that is because today there is a problem with staffing levels... to run on the levels that wards are expected run on today would have been unacceptable when I trained. even on night duty we had 4 nurses.. usually 2 staff nurse and 2 students. as students we rotated onto nights from the second year on.
ok.. I'll quit with the granny talk!!
Karen

Aah, those were the days and good days they were too!

24 years and still counting for me :)

Tina

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Apr 7, 2005

yeah............ I've been a nurse longer than you've been alive probably!!
yes... seen lots of changes and not all for the good!! when I was a student(can you hear the rocking chair creak?) we had 2 sisters, 5-6 staff nurses, 2-3 enrolled nurses plus students- usually about 10 of us!! to each ward. sister was like God...! you didnt go on duty with make-up, jewelery- only wedding rings allowed. no nail varnish and black tights. we were sent home if not in correct uniform. we worked a 40hr week.. and I was running the ward by the middle of my second year. we did 4hrly back rounds.. I never sent a patient home with a pressure sore (which happens all the time now!) we did 4hrly obs rounds. drug rounds were done by a qualified nurse and a student- you had to know every drug in the trolley! we knew our patients... all the patients on the ward.. all 36 of them. I can still make up a bed for any evenuality!! when I did the extended/supplementary prescribing course, we spent a morning in the skills lab.. us old lags had a bed making competion... and we spent a happy hour making up theatre packs, admission packs etc.... do you still make up theatre packs on beds?? what was interesting is that though we all trained in different hospitals we all made the beds the same way!!
there are other changes.. and to be honest I dont think patients get the same level of care today as we gave.. but a lot of that is because today there is a problem with staffing levels... to run on the levels that wards are expected run on today would have been unacceptable when I trained. even on night duty we had 4 nurses.. usually 2 staff nurse and 2 students. as students we rotated onto nights from the second year on.
ok.. I'll quit with the granny talk!!
Karen

16 years for me abut they were good old days too, and they certainly prepared me for the real world of nursing! I still have times on a ward when I rely on skills taught back in late 80's.

The pay was poor, but by god we had such a great time, we would have cheap bottle of plonk and go out at 10pm blagging taxi drivers and night clubs to get in for free, once there we had enough money for half a lager and we relied on the male admiration of nurses to provide drinks for the rest of the night, how awful were we.

We get up for an early and perform like we had slept all night.

Nothin was written on a hand over sheet you had to know it all, there was always lots of students 1st yrs, 2ndyrs and 3rd years (who where all knowing).

1st yrs had to learn from the other more experienced students. You didnt call the qualified staff by there first names, you didnt sit at the nurses station waiting for jobs to do you went looking, you didnt take a BP which was elevated and then go to the nurse in charge and say you know the BP is up but dont know what the readings are. Take phone messages and give incorrect information rather than ask somebody who knows.

As a newly qualified no such thing as supernumery, right in the deep end and quickly you were in charge. But by god you keen, up to date, efficient and knowledgable.

Off soap box now :chuckle

karenG · Apr 7, 2005

oh yes.......the parties!! I remember going up to nightclubs in london, getting the milk train home and having a shower then going to work and pretending I'd had a good nights sleep!!

we used to get invited to parties at the Royal Naval college in Greenwich... eat lots, drink lots then get in a taxi home leaving behind a lot of disappointed sailors!!!

students today dont seem to have half the fun we did....

oh and submariners were always the best bet for a good meal!!!

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Apr 8, 2005

oh yes.......the parties!! I remember going up to nightclubs in london, getting the milk train home and having a shower then going to work and pretending I'd had a good nights sleep!!
we used to get invited to parties at the Royal Naval college in Greenwich... eat lots, drink lots then get in a taxi home leaving behind a lot of disappointed sailors!!!
students today dont seem to have half the fun we did....
oh and submariners were always the best bet for a good meal!!!

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