As the final placement of my nursing degree is coming to an end (4 weeks to go!) I thought I would reflect back and do a day in the life of a student nurse whilst on placement. Before I started the degree, I didn’t quite realise all the hard work that would go into doing a 12.5 hour shift and the earlry starts that would come with it!
I’m going to be talking about a typical day as a third year student nurse, but this is applicable to those going into first and second year placements as well, as responsibilities change as you progress but the care you give with stay the same 🙂
Also, as a student nurse, you will be expected to complete night shifts as part of your rota. But for this blog, I’ll be doing what happens in a day shift (as sometimes night shifts are very quiet!)
So here goes…
The night before: I always get my bag ready the night before (uniform, PAD document, shoes, pencil case ect…) because the last thing I want to be doing in the morning is packing my bag (this also lets me have an extra 10 minutes in bed… hooray!) I also make my lunch the night before and pop it in the fridge 🙂
Very early the next morning…
05:20am – The dreaded alarm goes off. Usually, it goes on snooze until 05:45 then I’m forced to get up! Once I’ve managed to drag myself out of bed and into the cold, I’ll do all the normal get ready stuff (shower, hair wash, brush my teeth, do my hair ect…)
06:30 – After getting dressed in my comfy clothes, putting my coat on and grabbing my bag I head out the door to catch my bus (not forgetting my lunch of course!)
06:40 – Catch my bus to work. I have been lucky throughout my training and the furthest I have had to travel to placement is an hour each way. So depending on where you are placed/where you live you might be getting up a lot earlier or a lot later than me! At present, my bus journey takes around 20 minutes and a 10-15 minute walk to the hospital (Depending on how tired I am!)
07:10 – Arrive at work and start to get changed into my uniform.
07:15-07:45 – I like to arrive at work early to have a sit in the staff room and have some toast before I start work. I get so grumpy when I’m hungry and you never know how busy the day will be – so I always like to start with breakfast!
07:45 – The nurse from the previous shift comes into the staff room to handover but this process varies from ward to ward. The ward I am currently on only hands over any social concerns, infection concerns and patient’s to watch to the entire nursing team. We then leave the staff room, see which patient’s we have been allocated and then receive a full patient handover from the nurse. On other wards I have been on, the nurse in charge will go through each patient then the nurse looking after them on the previous shift will give a brief handover.
07:45-08:15 – As I am a third year final placement student, I am given my own workload of 1-4 patients (Depending on if I am on the ward or in our high dependency unit on that day). I receive a handover for my patients from the previous nurse who looked after them. Even though I am given my own patients, I am still allocated to work with a nurse who will help me out and who I can delegate care to when I am busy… sadly I can’t be in two places at once! :()
08:15-10:00 – After receiving handover from the previous nurse, I will then begin planning the care for my patients. I do this by taking into account when observations, medications, feeds and any investigations are due that day. I also make a list of people I need to contact such as dieticians or speech and language therapy. After I’ve done this, I’ll go and introduce myself to each of my patients and their families and update their daily planner. Following this, I’ll do my regular safety checks of my patient’s room (crash bell, working oxygen and correct equipment, working suction and correct equipment). I will then do an assessment of my patient including baseline observations and a neurological assessment. After I have completed this, I will sit and do my care plans. These vary but in my current placement, we do an A-E assessment (I will talk more in depth about this on an upcoming blog post!!) and write my plan for the day.
At some point after this… I will try and go on my “breakfast break”. At the trust I am currently at, they give a 30 minute breakfast break and 45 minutes for lunch. But this does vary!
The rest of the day until 19:00 (with a lunch break thrown in there somewhere!)
The rest of my day varies depending on the patient’s I have, their conditions and whether I’m in the high dependency bay or not. As I work on a busy medical and surgical ward, I am often caring for pre-operative, post-operative and medical admission patients. Aside from doing observations, feeds (oral/ng/peg/tpn), medication (oral/intravenous) and other assessments, I have many other things I need to do for my patients. I may have to organise investigations (x-ray, MRI, CT), contact various members of the child’s care team to come and review (doctors, specialist nurses, physiotherapists, speech and language therapy, dieticians etc..). I may also have to perform procedures such as sterile wound dressings, drain removals, cannula removals, feeding tube insertion/removal to name a few examples. I may also have to arrange a child’s admission to the ward or discharge home. This involves lots of forms, writing documentation and arrangements for transport, medication and liaising with other hospitals if the child is going back to their local one.
I try to make time to wash and change my patient’s if their parents or careers are not present, need help doing so or want healthcare professionals to do this. I take great pride in doing personal care for my patient’s and do this with dignity (we all know a wash, change of clothes and fresh bedding makes us all feel better! :))
19:00-19:30 – This is the point of my day where I write my patient evaluations for the day. I write about how they have been, if there are any nursing concerns, what investigations/procedures they may have had done, plan for the next shift.
19:45-20:30 – Handover to the next shift. As a third year final placement student, I handover all my patient’s to the next nurse, using SBAR (you’ll become very familiar with this when you start your degree!) and answer any questions.
…Then home time!
By the time I get home, it is normally 21:00-21:30 and I sink into bed (after I’ve re-packed my bag of course!)
Despite the days being very long and tiring, it’s more than worth it. I love my career and providing children and their family with the best care possible 🙂
Next week, I am on annual leave for placement as I have the final OSCE (practical exam) of my nursing degree… So I’d better get back to revising 🙂
Until next time…
Alex 🙂
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