For Budding Florence Nightingales!! (Adult Nurse)

Member Name: cacalala1971

Product:	Adult Nurse
Date:	19/12/02 (567 review reads)
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I am writing this opinion for any of you reading this who are considering a career in nursing.

I started my nurse education (they don't call it training anymore, although I had a few lecturers who resembled the late Barbara Woodhouse), in 1993, as green as the proverbial grass, and as keen as a jar of colmans dijonnaise.

I was one of the 'guinea pigs' of the new style nurse education, and embarked on a 3 year diploma in Adult Nursing.

After spending an arduous year (yeah right), at university, studying all manner of things (we once spent a whole lesson on how many different words we could come up with for male and female genitalia!!!), we were let loose on the wards in our starched white uniforms with collars even Biggles would have been green with envy of.

One of the first sights I was greeted with was an elderly lady who had fallen onto the floor being manually lifted into a wheelchair by two care assistants. Being a good student, I asked them why they had picked this lady up off the floor (we were told in uni that under no circumstances should we manually lift a patient, not for our health but for the arse pocket of the nhs trust we were allocated to i'm surmising, litigation and all that), to be met by icy stares only Medusa could muster (or so I thought).

This was my first encounter with the massive practice/theory gap in nurse education. The university take an idealistic stance of how things should be done, but in reality it just doesnt cut it, I mean if I was an eighty year old arthritic lady I wouldn't appreciate being put in a hoist to be picked up off the floor either.

So throughout the rest of my education I had to juggle with my conscience on a regular basis, and lying to my tutors (also on a regular basis, gulp!). I did eventually qualify, through hard work, bloody mindedness, and a great deal of bending the truth to the powers that be (and hoping my back didnt give out to all
the lifting i'd been doing).

My first job was on a womens surgical ward, nothing spectacular, a lot of hysterectomies, hysteroscopies (and hysterics but that was mainly my colleagues).

I eventually got a job in Accident and Emergency as a senior staff nurse, working my way up to the dizzy heights of Sister.

This is where the real fun began. I did all manner of things during my time here, bandaging sprains (tasking stuff I know), to holding vomit bowls for the regular drunks, to being threatened by a junkie with a syringe full of god knows what, to being strangled by a bloke who I asked to put his cigarette out in the cubicle, to telling parents that their child has died.

The latter is the worst thing you could imagine having to do in a job (nothing to what the bereaved are going through I might add). But trying to keep yourself composed under a professional facade in these circumstances is on of the hardest things I have ever done, and no matter how many times you do it, it never gets any easier. You do your crying when your shift is over.

I eventually did my degree (it took 18 months as I already had a diploma and got a Bsc in Women's Health) which led me to the job Im currently in which is Lead Practitioner in Sexual Health at a local drop in centre. Its a nine to five, no working christmas etc, and most importantly fits in with my family life.

I earn £28,000 which does seem like a lot but someone with my level of responsibility and accountability in another profession would probably earn 2-3 times this amount.

In the 10 years I've been a nurse, I've had some terrible experiences, but the good ones have far outweighed the bad. Would I do it all again if I had my time over?? a resounding YES.

Although the job is physically and emotionally demanding, the hours are antisocial in most nursing jobs and they pay is abysmal (a newly qualified nurse earns £15000), I couldn'
t imagine doing anything else.

you have to have a sense of humour (its a prerequsite when you consider the pay at the end of all your hard work, lol), be able to make snap decisions, have good organisational and motivational skills (especially at a senior level, there is nothing worse than unhappy colleagues, it reflects on everyone in this type of job), and the ability to empathise with people from all walks of life (being judgemental just isnt an issue in this type of work).

I hope this opinion has been useful to anyone who is considering a career in nursing. One last bit of advice, keep an open mind, narrow mindedness, and "sticking to the rules" wil only stop you being the type of nurse that is truly inspirational.

Thank you for reading.

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