First Year as a Student Nurse
Hey!
So first year of becoming a student nurse was a rollercoaster of ups and downs that pushed me to some of my absolute limits and made me realise how much stronger I was than I originally thought. I was only 18 at the time and had ended up going to a University a few hours away from where I lived meaning I had to stay in halls. This was a scary concept what with being in a flat with 11 people I had never met, they all ended up being lovely but there were challenges with that as well (this is another story for another day!).
We start our training as a mixture of careers to ensure we get used to working as a multi-disciplinary team. This meant I got to know a lot of adult nurses, paramedics, midwifes, mental health nurses, ODPS and of course fellow paediatric nurses, highlighting to myself the importance of working together. Our University has amazing facilities with simulation suites making practice as realistic as possible! This sounds incredible but having never done anything like this before, it was all very daunting. We had actors, simulation dolls and had to work together and figure out situations that none of us had ever experienced before, but this was something you slowly get used to...even though I would say it still isn't my favourite aspect of the degree even approaching the end of the three years.
After 6 months of simulation practice it was time to get out into the real world. My first year placements (also another story) all taught me so much and allowed me to develop not only as a nurse but also as a person, you see and witness so much of the world that you have never had an insight into before that you can not help but grow and appreciate the little things in your life. I went from a very intense placement to spending some time in the community and seeing the invaluable service that nurses provide within people’s homes as well as in the hospital.
I overall very much enjoyed my first year of nursing, apart from missing home, and it really set me up for the next two years of my life! I found myself looking forward to restarting when it came to second year (I decided to move home for this) and could not wait to experience further placement options and to meet new nurses and incredible people. It is definitely a career that I would say needs a lot of perseverance, but if this is something that you want to do then it is definitely worth sticking with and continuing the journey to become involved in a career that is so amazing!
