michou

Hi, I read your post with interest. I am french and I have just finished my english nursing diploma. I would like to go back home as I feel homesick after nearly 15 years in London.... problem is I only have 8 months nursing experience (6 in acute renal unit and 2 in a renal and pancreas transplant ward). I sadly had to leave my last post because of childcare problem. I am trying to do some bank work in my local hospital to gain wider experience but I am worried about my overall nursing skills. You know during my training I was more a HCA than a student to teach, consequently I am not that confident with IVs, blood etc.....I have the feeling that french nurses have access to better training and once out of nursing school are quite at ease with IVs, cannulation, blood infusion, am I wrong? Tell me what you think and If I were to go back now how easy would it be to find a job with that amount of experience and what training would I get access to? Thank you

Thank you for your reply. You really seem very enthusiastic about your job. I am thinking of getting into district nursing. How easy is it to access courses/ study days in the community? I would appreciate if you could tell me what nursing topic I should read about, increase my knowledge of......

Hello, I am 1 year post registration and I have so far worked 6 months in an acute renal unit and 3 months in a renal and pancreatic transplant ward. I need to be more at home ( 13 year old is playing up, this is why I had to let go my last job) and I think a community job would be right for me. Could you tell me what it is like? what do you like/dislike about it .....

I started my night shift and was given a patient that had been admitted in the afternoon. Bowel obstruction was one of the many problems he had but he refused all laxatives, enema prescribed. He was trying to tune the tv by his bedside but could not manage well because of neuropathy in his hand. One of my colleague gave him a surgical glove to help grip the button of the tv. Next time I went in his room I noticed faeces everywhere, sheets, bed rails, tv, himself... Yes he had had a good dig at removing the obstruction himself... I started cleaning him with my colleague and he kept saying " go on girls stick your finger in and get it out, that what my wife does" (SHE WAS A HEALTH VISITOR!!!).

I started working in an acute renal unit post graduation. The first months have been very hard. Learning dialysis, how to work out the machines, looking after unstable patients, drugs, IVs etc. I have left work after my shifts with blinding headaches and I would wake up during the night and panic It is only recently that I have started gaining confidence and I am more at ease with my patients and my work. I have been lucky to land on a ward staffed with great nurses who are all giving me support. It is a stressful time because the learning curve is big but you will get there. Good luck, we will all laugh about this in few years :rotfl:

Yesterday during patient handover, the day nurse told me that she omitted hypertensive meds to a patient because his blood pressure was low (137/76). Looking on the observation chart the patient's bp is usually more or less around this reading (when taking the meds) except for 1 or 2 occasion when it dropped to 90 systolic (and his medication was not omitted then). BP of 137/76 is not low for me and in her case I would have given the meds. My question is when do you omit hypertensive? At what reading? Apart the BP reading what else is taken into account?