 That's it everyone, I am finished for second year. Oh my God, what a year it's been. And some of you have been there through the whole year when I've been really struggling, when I've been really excited, when things have been going well, when things have been going positive, when I've cried. So thank you so, so much everybody for following this journey with me, for coming on it and supporting me and all of your comments and everything has just been amazing. So thank you so, so much. But today's vlog, I just want to run through like a whole roundup of second year. What you might expect. I can only do this disclaimer again. I can only do my experiences from Birmingham City University. I can't talk for other universities and other placement areas and what they do and the way that they organise their stuff because every university is different. So just go into second year with an open mind basically. You're gonna have your own experience and your own journey. So just be open minded and just don't worry about it is the main thing. So let's start at the beginning. So the start of second year for us, we only had one module, one exam, that was it. So we had our NP3 exam, which was an anatomy and physiology based exam, but it was based around case study patients. So our case study patients were, one was around cancer and someone had an abdotumor. It was causing a blockage and there was 101 things going wrong with it. We had another one that was diabetic and then we had a third patient that had MS. We had to basically learn the ins and outs of every single condition, the treatment, the side effects of the treatment, all the ins and outs of that particular treatment for each case study. And we had to learn how to manage that patient, how to assess that patient, how to pretty much do everything possible for that patient and then we were given an exam on it. But you know what? It was just one module. So we had the time to do the revision and we needed that time, I think to do that amount of revision. I feel like I personally over revised and those of you that watched the vlogs and I was revising, I was getting really stressed, I was tearing my hair out with it because I just over revised. I revised daily for that exam and it was too much. I feel like I put too much pressure on myself for that exam, but I passed and I did it. So I was really chuffed that I passed that and actually all of us passed it. My group of uni friends, we all did really well to be honest, I think and I'm really proud of us for that one. And then I had obviously my general practice placement that you all love. I loved it. Well, you might not all of it, but some of you loved it. I really loved it and you know I loved it. I had so many opportunities at the start of the year with my general practice placement. I went to a GP conference. I did a whole talk at a GP conference in front of all these NHS people. It terrified me, but I did it and I pushed myself. So that was one of my highlights, I think, from this year and it was amazing. It was just, it just, it really made my day. I absolutely loved it. And then I became a GP ambassador for them and now I'm gonna be going out and promoting GP and going to conferences and things like that to do talks and hopefully do more in getting people involved in general practice, getting people thinking about GP as a first choice career stop for you. And if you haven't saw those vlogs, go back and have a look at my GP vlogs. I also wrote some blogs. I have a look on my diary of the studentness.co.uk website and have a read at everything I got up to back then because if you haven't, you're gonna fall in love. So next thing I wanna talk about is this second year blues thing. I have done a little vlog about it before, but I'm just gonna just quickly cover it because I'm the most positive, motivating person ever. And even I felt the second year blues. I felt like everything was just all at once coming at me and you sort of, I did get into a bit of a black hole for about two weeks where I just felt rubbish. I didn't wanna do much. I didn't wanna go to work. I just felt, oh my God, how am I gonna do this? How am I gonna continue? But you know what? You have to, have to keep going, guys. It is gonna be so, so hard and you're gonna feel like you're down there in a dark, dark ditch. You can't see the light. You're panicking. You're just feeling so overwhelmed with emotion and you don't know how you're gonna overcome it and you don't know how you're gonna survive another day on placement. You don't know how you're gonna go to your bank shift because you can't put that smile on. You can't feel like anything other than in this dark place. And to be honest, I haven't really gone into much detail about how I actually felt, but that's how I felt. I felt horrendous and no one knew because my social media and everything was really positive and I didn't speak about it because I wasn't ready to speak about it and I don't really want to talk negatively about things, but I was in that place and if I can get in that place, anybody can get into that place but the key thing is talk about it. Talk about your close, talk about it to your closest friends, family members, anybody you've got in your life, your pets, talk to your dog about it. Talk to your cats about it, your hamster, your ferret, your gerbil, whatever you've got. You need to vent, you need to get it out and you need to talk about it and you just need to carry on and I know sometimes that's really, really hard. I mean, I took two weeks out of placement and I just got into this wallow of self-blimming pity and just one day, I just, I sat there, I was like, what am I doing? I was literally like, Claire, you need to stop it because this has been 10 years, it's taken me 10 years to get to where I am today. Don't ruin it because of just some silly things that's going on in your life at the minute. Get out there, put your face on and do it. Get back to placement, get your head down and finish it. Finish second year on a high note, on a positive note and be proud. So do you know what? It was the kick I needed to give myself and I did it. I went back to placement, I wasn't feeling good, I wasn't feeling right, but do you know what? I put that smile on my face, I hid off all of my emotions until I got home. I'm not gonna lie, I cried when I got home. I cried probably every day for about three weeks because I was just so low. But do you know what? When I was out there on placement, I was this smiley, happy, amazing person because you have to be that person for your patience. It's making me emotional now, thinking about it because it was a horrible time and it's not nice to think of myself or my friends or anybody else being in that situation and people are. Like with student nurses putting up with quite a lot of tough times that are thrown at us and we will get into that mindset once throughout this journey and just the main point I'm trying to make is you need to carry on. If you are in that place now, if you're really struggling, you're in that black hole, you don't feel like you can get out, you can get out, you can do this. Do you know what? You're amazing, you are a unique, you are a unique individual. You chose nursing, you chose to help other people above anything else. That makes you absolutely special and you know what? You can do this. If I can do this, anybody can do this. Get back out there, get back on the horse, get your head down, get your book signed up. Just do it. Just put your spray face on, put your smile on. When you come home, vent about it, talk about it, write it down because getting it out is the best thing I ever did. Just write it down, get it out, get it out your system, out your mind, get a good night's sleep, put lavender on your pillows, have a nice bath, everything, anything that you can do to make you feel better. I know it's hard when you're feeling like that, but you need to do it. You need to climb out of that hole and you need to carry on because you're going to be a fantastic nurse when you qualify. You're gonna make a difference to so many people out there and you're gonna feel amazing. This feeling isn't gonna last forever, it's gonna go away and you're gonna be on top of the world, loving life. So please, please, please, just, if you need anything, feel free to message me. My inbox is always open for anyone that's really struggling and needs a kick like I needed. Please come to me because I will be that person and just have a cup of tea and carry on. These last few months, I'm not gonna lie, they've been a struggle. I mean, I have no responsibilities, I don't have children or anything like that, so for me, I found it okay and manageable because I had the time to revise, I had the time to do the work, I had the time to do my assignments, to do placement, to do everything, I've got nothing else to worry about. So I feel like I really focused my time, I organised myself, I prioritised what was coming first and when, and I feel like that for me really, really helped. That was a lot of work to do and when you've got children and families to look after, they must have struggled and actually a couple of my friends do have children and I know a couple of them have struggled and I'm just so proud that they've got through it and they've done it and they've passed everything and they've done amazing. So a massive shout out to those people because they're fantastic and they deserve an extra degree on top of this for surviving. They've been amazing. Oh, I'm so proud, I'm really proud of them. So what did we have for the second half of the year? So firstly, we had to write a care plan and then 1,500 words rationale for that care plan. Then we had a mother and baby leaflet to design and we had the choice of topics to write these things about. So then we had the mother and baby leaflet and then 1,000 word rationale alongside that leaflet and then after that, we had a poster presentation. It was a group poster presentation that we did and we had to go and find a research-based paper on a dementia topic, any kind of thing that we found relevant. So we had to create our own sort of research question and then we had to go out and find the evidence and the research behind it and then we had to talk about that in our poster presentation. Alongside that, we had an assignment which was 2,000 words to write out this case study which was a dementia patient called Jeremy and Jeremy had dementia, he had all these things going on, he had UTIs, he was wandering in the night, he was urinating in the bins and he had a lot of problems going on. So we had to write an assignment based around that and the nursing interventions that we would use to manage those problems. And to be honest, I made the biggest no-no. I can't remember if I've logged it, I'm sure I would have logged it but I made the biggest no-no in that assignment. Basically, I just said we had to write a nursing intervention and I actually ended up writing a medical intervention. I started to write about the UTI when that, it wasn't in the brief, I shouldn't have done that. And so that grade obviously reflected my massive, huge error. Please don't do this everybody, please make sure you read your assignment brief inside out and follow it. Don't, if you don't take anything else from this vlog, do that, okay? Because as long as you follow that brief, as long as you do everything, you're gonna be all right, basically. But I did make that mistake and I kicked myself and I still kick myself for it, it was horrendous. So, okay, so anyway, erase that. So then the next thing we had was our NP3 exam and that involved a couple of case studies against. So we had a DKA case study to follow and a sepsis patient. And it was pretty similar to the NP2 exam so we had to know everything, ins and outs, the physiology about DKA, how it affects the body, how it affects the organs, the compensatory mechanisms that the body uses when it's going into hypervolemic shock and hypervolemic shock was the big one for us. That's the main thing that we had to know. There was just so much that we had to learn for that exam but do you know what? I feel like it was a really good exam, that this exam was my favorite one because I found it, I don't wanna be, I don't wanna say the easiest but the easiest because to me, there wasn't as much revision and I don't know if that's because of all the prep that we've done from NP1 exam, NP2 exam, that the knowledge is just actually sinking in and you're starting to remember and you're starting to actually know more and you're starting to put things together and pieces together and everything just suddenly makes sense. But I found NP3 a lot easier than the other two exams so I was really chuffed after coming out of that exam and I had high hopes. I did think about it afterwards and I did worry that I'd got a few more mistakes wrong than I thought and then I started to panic it in and then I started to worry and then after exams, you always think the worst and you always think, oh, I should have said this, I should have said that and then you think you've failed and you're off the course and your pin's been taken from you before. The worst case scenario always goes into your head after an exam but do you know what? I did walk out of that exam feeling good until the next day and I checked, yeah, we won't mention that. But yes, that was my favorite exam out of all of them. I really enjoyed it and I did find it the easiest. So, NP4, I'm hoping, is going to be even better but that's next year. We won't talk about that right now. And I think that's it. Is that it? Is that all we had? So we had NP3 exam, care plan and rationale, mother and baby leaflet and rationale, Jeremy assignment, poster presentation and placement, of course, placement. Oh, and drugs calculations, maths exam, which I got 100% in. If you haven't seen the vlog, surprise. I got 100% in my drugs calculations. I was chuffed. But do you know what? Again, that was a lot easier. If you haven't seen the vlog, go back and check it out. And that was a lot easier than I thought it went. So I was, this year, it's been okay. The workload thrown at us all at once like that because that, we had all of that work in three months or something to do and the deadlines were one after the other. Like boom, boom, boom. There you go, students, put up with that. And I was just like, so it was a lot. It was a lot of workload all at once, but do you know what? The key to surviving second year really is be organized. If you're the sort of person that leaves things till last minute, erase, stamp it out now. You need to be organized. You need to, as soon as they launch that work, get on it, start your revision, start your research, start doing the work. Don't wait till the last minute because you're gonna really, really get caught out and you don't want that to happen, okay? Please, please, please. Second piece of advice you need to take from this vlog, if you don't listen to anything else I'll say, be organized. Just, it's just, it's the way to survive second year. I promise you. So shall we add some lighthearted humor to this vlog? Because I feel like it just took a bit of a downhill slope. So I'm gonna end this vlog on my funny moments, I think, of this year. So firstly, I want to do a massive, massive shout out to the one student, actually there's more than one student, but this main one student who I'm not gonna name, I'm not gonna shame that person because that's not even fair. But there was one student that fell asleep in class and all we heard was a boom, boom. Because she fell off her chair onto the floor. I'm so sorry, but you know what, that made my day. It wasn't very nice for you, I'm so sorry. I hope you're not watching this. But she fell asleep and to be honest, it was a boring lecture. It was one of those lectures that you just couldn't focus and we all were nearly falling asleep. But she literally fell asleep and fell on the floor with a thud, everybody turned round and everybody was just like, but it made my day, sorry. Funny moment number two. So the second time was when I was helping a patient and we just gave an enema and she said, I really need to get onto the commode. I was like, okay, let's get you on the commode. I stood her up and there was an explosion that went onto my leg and I got pieces down my leg and I was mortified. I was there like, hold it in, hold it in until you leave this room, hold it in. So then I was like, okay, yeah, put you on the commode. I ran out of there when she was on the commode and scrubbed my leg with everything I could find in the cleaning cupboard. It was horrendous. I was mortified, but it was hilarious when I thought about it and I told my mentor, I was like, oh my God, I didn't tell you. And it was just, it was so funny. Funny moment number three. So as some of you might know, I was at the GP conference back in March, I think, April, May, around that time, start of the year. And I was asked to stand up on stage and just do a little talk in front of everybody. All these big doctors, NHS people, consultants, primary care lead for the NHS, Karen's story herself. And nobody told me that I would be sitting down. I thought I was gonna be standing up. So me being me, I had odd socks on. One red and one blue under my trousers. So then I sat down and I thought, oh my God, my trousers have just risen. Everybody is watching me and can see my odd socks right now. So what did I do? I thought I would make it a break, an ice breaker and I pointed it out. I don't think anyone had even noticed until I pointed it out. So I was there like, don't mind me, everyone. I've got odd socks on and nobody told me I'd be sat down. And luckily everyone laughed and it was a nice ice breaker. I think I'm gonna use that at every conference that I have to speak at now or if I've got to do some sort of public speaker and I think that odd socks is definitely the one to break the ice. Funny moment number four. So this literally happened yesterday. I had a Christmas tree light switch on at Birmingham City University and I was given the fantastic task of doing an interview with a celebrity, I know. And this celebrity was a former England cricketer called Ashley Giles. So I'm not good when I'm given scripts. I'm good just winging it like I do with my vlogs. I don't script anything. I literally just talk and talk and talk, put it out, done. So when I'm given a script, I start to panic a little bit. So I was practicing this script over and over and over from 1 p.m. till half past four when he arrived. And I kept saying it over, Birmingham City University. I'm here at Birmingham City University. I'm here with Ashley Giles, blah, blah, blah. Had it, nailed it. So Ashley shows up. I introduce myself. Hi, my name's Claire. I'm here to do your interview with you. Okay, let's stand by the tree. Let's do this. It's gonna look cute, yeah. Okay, rolling. So I'm here at Birmingham City University at City South Campus with the amazing Ashley Cole former cricketer. Does anybody know what I did wrong there? Luckily, he was absolutely amazing about it. He laughed about it. I went bright red. I was mortified. I'm still mortified thinking about it now. And I looked at him and I was just like, I am so sorry. I don't even like Ashley Cole. Don't know why I said that. I'm so sorry. And luckily he was a legend. He was like, don't worry about it, Claire. It's fine. And then we just, we carried on. I mean, we only took two takes, so we did good, I think. Fifth funny moment of second year. So when I went to the health and social care awards at the Edge Bast and Crisket Ground, this was as part of the Haas scholarship. I didn't realize that we were going up on stage. No one warned me, no one told me this. I just thought we were there to support the Haas. So when I was called up to go on stage, I was like, what? But I had taken my shoes off because I had these high heels on. I can't walk in heels. So when I sat down at the table to eat, I took my high heels off. And I sat there, I was like, what am I gonna do? I can't put my shoes. I was looking, oh my God, I need to go, I need to go. So I just, I ran up there barefoot onto the stage and everyone was just looking and laughing at my feet. And everybody thought it was hilarious. I was mortified and I was like, oh my God, I can't believe I've just done this. This is horrendous. Everyone's just saw my feet. But it was a funny moment to be there. I think you had to have been there to find it as funny, but it was just a little bit of comedy that I really loved.