#futurenursing

3. When I was working for the Older Adult community team, I managed to get one man who was notoriously against involvement with us to agree to engage with services. Explaining the rationale behind it in a way he understood, as he was a very staunch, traditional masculinity type of man (as most older men are). Perhaps it helped that I was a male nurse myself.

Well - I always carry a notepad with a little pencil inside to take down notes, and a pen or three. A bottle of hand sanitiser is always a must. The most important part is, of course, my ID badge and lanyard - like a lot of nurses, I have it decorated with some pin badges of causes I feel are important. These give patients something to talk about, so it can be quite a good way to start conversations. Especially on topics which are difficult to discuss to strangers! And lastly, there’s my little Starbucks tin which I’ve recycled and use for taking instant coffee into work. I always feel bad using anything of another person’s, or accepting the same. So I try to take my own, where possible! Just an old habit of mine.

My top five nursing tips: 1. Be confident - you’re a professional, you’re trained, and you’ve got expertise in your field. Your decisions are your own responsibility, so don’t let other people dissuade you. 2. For venepuncture, you’re only trying to go in “skin deep” - about a millimetre or so will get you into the vein. Any further and you’ll go straight through it. 3. If you’re unsure, there’s no shame in asking a colleague for help. Nurses face such a huge variety of issues to solve on a daily basis, and it’s entirely unreasonable to assume they’ll know everything all of the time - especially more obscure things! Don’t be afraid of losing face. 4. Support your students! Never act like you’re too busy to help them understand or learn things, and especially to socialise with them! They already feel so out of place in their new placements, and being friendly can go a long way to making them comfortable and confident. 5. Patients are vulnerable, and this terrifies them. Even in milder cases, there’s a level of anxiety there. Understand this can be the reason for aggression or hostility, but hopefully your patients will understand that you’re here to do your best for them. Healthcare’s a tough job to work in!

1. Resilient 2. Overworked 3. Caring 4. Knowledgeable 5. Skilled Overall - nurses are rocks. They keep you and your relatives grounded in times of ill health, and ground each other against the everyday stresses of the job. Nurses are caring individuals, and they want nothing more than to see you leave their care - ideally with a heartbeat, and preferably with a smile on your face.

As I’ve said in a previous post - I’ve got one cousin who’s a nurse, and that’s it. She’s an adult/general nurse, too, so an entirely different branch from my own!

As a student, a few nurses would come to get me if they were struggling to get a patient’s blood, and that was always good for my confidence. I really enjoyed doing it, too, and it’s just a shame my current job doesn’t really call for it!

My nursing pet peeves - the biggest one is a nurse with a chip on their shoulder. I’ve seen a few nurses who’ve talked down to younger nurses, especially older nurses who were trained at diploma level. They seem threatened by degree-trained nurses, but instead of topping their qualification up to degree level (relatively easy to do), they instead decide to take out their frustrations on young nurses. It’s quite sad, really. Another thing is when nurses are wasteful - like leaving lights on in empty rooms, or wasting sterile/one-time-use equipment. Gahh!

“10 people you should follow on twitter.” Sadly, I don’t use twitter, so I can’t really do this one. Kinda sucks, but that’s how it is!