We just had our first week of transition year work experience and may I just say I didnt want to leave mine.. it was just so AMAZING! :D I was in Private 3 Ward in St. James Hospital and I have to say all the staff were just so lovely! They knew they had to get all there work done but they took out there precious time to talk me through the procedures they were doing and explaining at tims the very confusing equipment!
It was an *observe only* work experience so I didnt expect to be doing any jobs, but at multiple times I was running up and down the ward! I had to wash and make beds of the out-going patients, wash the patients, help change the patients, I manually took the pulse of the patients, assisted with changing the dressing of wounds post-surgery, and just did general little jobs for the patients who couldnt move. These are little jobs that the nurses do many times daily, along with much more important jobs. During hand-over I was given the task to answer the phones and wirte down important messages! That was pretty scary at first but then I got into it! The doctor of the ward brought me around and I witnessed a lung and stomach drain being pulled out after surgery, which was pretty cool! I witnessed a cardiac echo graph, stapled stiches being removed, a blood transfusion, and witnessed the procedure a patient goes through to go to surgery! On one of the days, I was taken with the student nurses and sat through two lectures one on the kindney and the other on cardiac arrest!
At lunch while talking to the other staff you could notice how hard the life of a nurse really is. They were saying when working an 13 hour shift, you are given a half an hour break and a hour for lunch. But most days they are extremely lucky to get those essential minutes of rest. When the ward is really busy and your patients are extremely sick, you dont have the time to sit down for a cup of tea! Also one thing that struck with me is when they were talking about patients dying. If one of your patients that you have really been close to dies, they say in college not to cry, but sometimes its just too hard to try not to. One nurse told me "I cant even count the number of times I've drived home crying because of a pateint"
Since starting secondary school I've always wanted to be a Nurse but now I'm not too sure. I never knew it was so intense and completely hands on with the patient.
Only time will tell I guess..
-Aoife xoxo
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