bassandtea

I actually don't find pizza all that strange since I'm allergic to virtually everything that is used as a pizza topping!

I have an extremely severe intolerance or mild allergy to: aged meats/fish, cheese, chocolate, banana, bacon, ham, salmon, olive oil, most nuts and alcohol just to name a few. Bacon is one of the worst triggering an immune reaction that causes me to break out in cold sores within 24 hours, most of the others just make me feel tired, nauseas and cause headaches and migraines.

When I was out on my first prac I noticed a lot of things were done differently from how they were in school. One thing I really appreciated was when my preceptors would let me ask why there was a difference and give me a good answer. Having a rationale behind differences in technique made it easier to understand why there were differences and why things were done in a certain way in that particular facility.

My understanding is that it's not OCD, but an OCD spectrum disorder, similar in some ways to dermotillimania (compulsive skin picking)

Thanks for clarifying your post multicollinearity. I've had a number of people tell me that medication for anxiety and depression isn't required and that I should stop taking my medication, which gets frustrating. I've tried various talk therapies, including CBT and am involved in peer support groups and regular counseling sessions in addition to seeing a psychiatrist. For me medication is the only thing that has made a difference and has made a huge difference in my life. I try to be pretty open about my illnesses, but sometimes it's hard. One thing I can say though is that while I struggle at exam times, being at nursing school has actually been really good for me. It's not always easy and I still have bad days, but it has given me more of a sense of purpose than I've had in years.

It's a complex issue and I can only speak for myself. In my case depression and anxiety are totally unrelated to nursing school, since I was diagnosed 18 years before starting. I believe that genetics have a lot to do with it in my case as there is an obvious, if undiagnosed history in both my maternal and paternal families. One thing I have noticed amongst peers in depression/anxiety support groups is that many of those suffering from depression/anxiety are very compassionate people, a personality trait that I believe lends itself to nursing. I've also noticed in this group of people that there is a strong desire to help others - again something that seems to be common in those interested in a nursing career. I guess what I believe to some extent is that nursing may not be the cause of depression/anxiety, but that the personality traits that can be associated with depression/anxiety are often those same traits that draw people to a career in nursing and other helping/caring professions.

I don't know about Excelsior, but as a nurse it is very likely you will work 12 hour shifts - it happens in the USA and over here in Australia. Like with any job where you have a duty of care to patients/the public it's also possible that you will be required to work overtime to get the job done and in some cases keep somebody alive. As a student I generally only do 8 hour days on placement, but I know that will change when I'm out in the real world. My father worked as paramedic and I can remember at least one time when he was on duty for two days (urgent patient transfer interstate) before coming home. I've worked in a number of industries outside of nursing and with my longest working day so far has been 21hours. If you think 12 hour shifts are too much, then maybe you should think about if this is the right career for you because as a nurse you can't always leave when your shift is over - doing so might cost somebodies life.

I recently did my first placement and was lucky to have some of the most amazing RNs to work with, however not all of my classmates were so lucky. The ward I was working on had a few recent graduates and a nurse educator. As a student I was taken along with the recent graduates whenever the nurse educator had an interesting patient or specialist skill to teach. That said I did find the limits to my scope of practice as set out by my school frustrating. Part of it was because I have a different skill set from many of the other nursing students in my year, having worked with animals in the past. (For example I was taking out sutures, doing drug calculations, administering medications etc before even thinking about nursing school) One thing I found appeared to make it easier for both myself and the RN I was working with was to take a minute at the beginning of the shift with a new RN to outline what my scope of practice was, anything specific I needed to do for assessment and if there was anything I felt uncomfortable doing. I also found it made things easier if I was able to approach the nurse I was working with and say "I'm not comfortable with doing X task, can I please observe you doing it and then do it with your assistance" Really on my placement I only seemed to have one problem... The nurses I worked with kept on forgetting I was on my first placement and when I was asked if I could carry a task out that was beyond my scope of practice was asked "you're a second/third year student, right?" Nope, first year, first prac... I guess that's my long winded and kind of off track way of saying thanks to the nurses that made my first placement so easy and wonderful and to let those nurses out there that make other students placements so fantastic know we appreciate it!

I think it's important to know why parents have chosen not to vaccinate their children. There are so many reasons that could be behind such a decision - allergies to what is in the vaccination, concerns about side effects or a family history of bad reactions just to name a few. I have personally seen two members of my family react badly to vaccinations to the point they needed hospitalisation, with one coming close to death. Something that obviously makes me hesitant to vaccinate any children I might have. Being able to discuss potential side effects, ingredients and any changes in vaccinations would be the information I would find important to receive before making a decision about vaccination.

From one of my friends "Diagnosis: Sick" That's all that was written... Sick with what?

I feel sorry for my poor Mother when we have family dinners since between my brother and I conversations seem to go something like "I saw brain fluid being drained" "Well I found two dead bodies this week"... I'm a nursing student, younger brother is a cop and to make things worse my Dad is a retired paramedic that chimes in with his own stories... Although having grown up with Dads stories over dinner did gain me a reputation as the nursing student with the best gross stories to tell

I don't have children, but have friends with LDs and used to peer tutor others with LDs. What I found really helped with the people I was tutoring was to try and relate as much back to their interests as possible. I worked with two 113 year old boys who had slipped through the cracks and were unable to read. To encourage their reading I spent time talking to time talking to them to find out their interests and tried to focus as much of what we did to their interests - for example one of the boys liked motorbikes so we concentrated on reading anything about motorbikes and I presented him with the idea that by improving his reading he could potentially get a manual on restoring motorbikes and restore one himself as he got older...

I'm a second career nursing student and have just finished my first prac. I'm not naive enough to be unaware of the problems that nurses face - and even if I had been my eyes would have been opened after spending just 3 weeks in a hospital. Yes there is stress, under-staffing, long hours, patients and families that will drive you crazy or scare you, but there are rewards that I have only experienced in one other (volunteer) job - which was being an animal foster carer... In the last three weeks of prac I have laughed and cried and swore I would never go back, but just as things seemed terrible something wonderful would happen... And for the first time I was doing something I could see myself doing for a long time to come. To be honest, I've been exhausted for the last few weeks and have spent most of the last couple of days sleeping. I spent nights dreaming about doing rounds and checking obs, but most of all I smile at the thought of some of the patients... Like the one I met on my first day who scared me so much I almost ran away... confused and feeling trapped in the hospital, unable to walk who I got to discover was a wonderful person, liked singing along to Johnny Cash and was able to walk with assistance from the physio before I left... Or the one that almost had me in tears at the gratitude expressed for just taking a moment to have a quick chat (a real advantage to being a student) with somebody who felt scared and alone... I could go on about so many little things that made up for the bad...

I've recently finished my first semester and my advice would be: 1) Work smart - know what you need to focus on and focus on that 2) Look after yourself. Nursing school can be hard and overwhelming at times and getting rundown won't help. 3) Laugh! If I didn't laugh I think I'd be in a padded room right now... savor the fun moments, because there will be some and they will get you through on days that you think nothing else will. 4) Seek help. Speak to other students, instructors, nurses... Take advantage of any services your school offers to help you. 5) Support each other and debrief with other students - one day a week about 10 of us have an hour break between classes, we use that time to have lunch and to vent, complain, laugh, cry and realise that there are others that understand exactly what it is like.

Current student at ACU