 on the vlog it has been a while I'm sorry about that but life has just been busy, manic, hectic I've been taking some time out all that jazz so yeah but anyway I'm here with some updates. Firstly Merry Christmas to everybody I hope you all had a happy holiday whatever you were doing however you were spending it and a huge happy new year to everybody 2023 I hope is going to be even better than 2022 I know 2022 was very very tough for some people out there obviously with the pandemic was still going we've got the NHS in crisis everybody's going on strikes the war in Ukraine poverty is happening out there homelessness is rising there is so much chaos and it feels like the world is going backwards right now instead of forwards but I really hope amongst the chaos you have found some peace joy and kindness throughout 2022 I know I have I've been very very fortunate I have to say and I feel guilty for feeling like that because I know people have struggled and actually 2022 for me has been a really good year all in all so what have I been up to lots of different things a lot of you know that I had a job change back in January I left GP and I was doing many other things so I can kind of tell you what I was doing now so I started off in January I left GP and I became a disability assessor working from home I can't name the company or anything like that obviously because of confidentiality reasons and we sign a waiver and stuff like that when we started that's why I couldn't really tell you anything about my role or vlog about it and that sort of thing which was really frustrating because vlogging is what I do and I like to share my experiences and my journey with everybody anyway I yes was a disability assessor working from home there was a number of reasons I wanted to do that it was going to give me more time to do the other things that I love so I'd also started with a private transgender healthcare company I was seeing transgender patients there was somebody that made a comment on one of my videos of my new job update that said they were very disappointed that I'd left GP and gone elsewhere and I was a wasted nurse please please please don't say that to anybody don't say that to anybody out there that wants to develop their career and do more for patients especially a vulnerable group of patients and obviously this person didn't realize that I was still seeing patients and I was still out there doing what I love they clearly don't know me they don't follow me on socials they don't know anything about my life to make that comment which is really really sad because I was actually seeing patients and I was making a massive difference to the trans community through doing that so yes please don't judge anybody for the career developments or the roles that they go into every single nurse is valid no matter what area you go into so never give up keep going guys don't let anyone put you down so yes alongside my two jobs I was doing at the time I was doing my disability assessment seeing transgender patients as well as my second role and then I was also setting up my own website called GC Health I'll put the link below if you want to have a look but it's just to help share education information and materials and things like that resources for people that want to care for trans patients so I've set the website up now it's still a work in progress don't get me wrong it's very basic but there's some resources on there about transgender patients and guidelines and resources and things like that so please have a look and hopefully that there'll be a use to you if you are caring for trans patients another add on to that was myself and George my partner if you don't know my partner George you should all know George by now we set up some webinars to deliver to students and healthcare professionals and different organisations charities that sort of thing anyone who wants it really about transgender healthcare and just given all of the educational advice knowledge and things that we have combined together me as a nurse George is a transgender man himself and together it just works really really well to give that information out there to people um so we've been doing that as well alongside of things so actually I've had three jobs going since January another thing that happened this year was I got engaged in case you didn't know I know I don't know what way it goes I'm sure I shared the story though before um but you don't know yes we got engaged so that was amazing next up my book I've been telling you for ages about my book I is finally underway it's been way too long it's been frustrating long process I started this book as a student nursing 2018 this book was finished like a year ago it was done it was finished uh sent it to the editors um and it's just been a really long process to get it finalised um I'm not too sure why the editor um has been very very slow they haven't been well and things like that so it's been a really really slow process from the minute I handed it in to this stage which is the editing stage I have a book cover ready they've showed me the chapters and what they're going to look like it looks amazing they've sent me the first six chapters yesterday to edit them and look at the edits that they've made and make any changes there was one reference actually that wasn't in there it's a good job they're looking I don't know where that reference went I think it's to do with um when I was submitting the book they wanted it all chopped up into different chapters and then the reference split up and put on each chapter and nobody had told me that at the start so at last minute before submitting I had to completely dismantle the whole of my book which was just on a word document and then a separate one for the references um I had to dismantle it all and rearrange it all so I think in that process somewhere that reference has just got removed somewhere and I've had no no doubt in the next six or seven whatever chapters there's going to be other little bits that are missing as well so but it didn't take me too long it took me a couple of hours just to go through all the six chapters make sure I was happy with everything do the little edits that they wanted um yeah it's that them six chapters should be good to go I think and yesterday when they sent me the chapters to edit I thought I'd just do a little video so you can see what I had to go through just to make you feel included in this book because this book is for you all of you and this is to help everybody you know through your nursing journey from start to finish it's going to be that you know applying to university from the get go all of the tips and advice for that personal statements interviews everything all the way through first year second year third year newly qualified nurse life and then some bonus bits at the end about lgbt and disabilities and people of color bane communities that sort of thing is included in it there's loads of different areas in this that's going to really really hopefully help manage sort of different patients as well as yourself and get you to where you want to be and just give you a little bit of a hand if you need it so here is the little video that I posted yesterday for you sorry this is going to be a little bit of a whoosh uh vlog uh but this is the video I did yesterday just to show you what's going on with my book so this is kind of how it comes um with all edits and notes and things like that so I'm just going through all of this this is one of the chapters and then I was just sent this just to see like the layout what it's going to look like uh the font and things like that um and I quite like this I like the layout I like how that looks so I'm happy with that I know how exciting is this this is so exciting um I really really hope that it helps so many people out there because nursing is tough this course is tough um and since writing the book the course has changed as well but all of the aspects that's in this book is going to be useful it's really done in a generic way so that if the course does change and things like that all these points will still be relevant so things like assignment writing how to structure an assignment and that sort of thing that's all in there you can apply that to anything um things like placement advice placements aren't going to really change much you're still going to have the same process replacements and and there's also ward specific placements as well that I've put in in there community primary care all the help and advice that I could think of to help you through it's all just really a survival guide to nursing and hopefully it's just I'm so excited for it even if it just helps one person out there my job is done with that book the only thing I worry about with the book is I don't know what the price is going to be and I don't think I have a say in it because it's with the publisher and the publisher has to set the price for how much it's cost to develop and the editors and the images and um the quality of the book and all of that I'm really worried that it's going to be a bit hefty because I know that books with publishers nursing related books can be a bit pricey sometimes so I'm hoping I'm going to get one some free copies to give away to people two I might have a say in the price I don't know I haven't asked the question I need to find out but hopefully I will have a say in the price because I want to make it affordable for everybody I'm not here to make money and even if I do even even with the money side of books I'm literally getting 5% I know so you get 10% of book sales I've split the the percentage with Annmarie Dodson those that you that don't know Annmarie she was a lecturer at my university as a student she wasn't my personal tutor or my personal lecturer but somehow the universe brought us together and we did a lot of charity work Snowden was with Annmarie bake sales that we did and all of that and she just became like family to me after I left university I still saw Ann we still did stuff together we still go to a house and things like that and meet up for lunch and catch us up and things like that so yeah she's become like family uh Annmarie she's almost like a mother it's lovely so yeah so she is getting 5% so we're splitting the costs she wrote one of the chapters in the book anyway what I was getting at was even whatever price it's set at I'm not going to make much money anyway I'm not really bothered I didn't write this to make money I wrote this book to help students and help people and that was my main aim of it it's not about money to me so if I can put it for as less money as possible that would be great anyway this video is getting to be really really long so my final update of 2022 is uh have a new job I know I've just listed 101 things that I do but I have a new job I saw another job come up and I applied for it it was for an assistant lecturer role at university and I know so many people have said to me even as a student onwards all through my I've been qualified for almost three years now and everyone was saying oh you make a great lecturer you'd be a really good lecturer why don't you go into lecturing and I was just like oh I'm not sure I could do it I love teaching I love education I love helping students I'm very very passionate about student nurses and the future of nursing so I knew it was something I would love and something that I would like to apply for and something that I'd love to do but the reason why I had doubts in the back of my mind was um I have a fear of public speaking and people think that's crazy because I do youtube vlogs and I'm really active on social media and stuff like that and people think I'm this extrovert person when I'm really really not I'm actually a massive introvert and the thought of standing in a room with eyes watching you and speaking has always terrified me and I knew that from a student nurse from the get go however as a student nurse I realized that I really loved education and I wanted to do more to educate others and stand up and speak and things like this so I knew I had to get over that fear somehow so I pushed myself and I went to spoken conferences I did um I've done guest lecturing and things like that just to get me used to it just to sort of try and help the fear I mean don't don't get me wrong I'm still terrified but it's not as bad and I can calm those nerves now and I can get over it and I can just enjoy it hopefully um but yes I anyway applied for assistant lecturer role that was a very long story around about way um at university and I'm ecstatic I I'm still absolutely buzzing I've been in the role for three weeks now we've just had a week off for Christmas technically it's four weeks um but I'm just absolutely buzzing like I mean I'm in the pinch me moment because I was like I never thought I would get this I don't know why I think it's that just that self-confidence um imposter syndrome that sort of creeps in and you say no I'm not good for this role um and actually I got it and I'm going to be doing the leadership module which is amazing I'm really excited to be on the leadership module I'm going to be I've been given the task of setting up a diversity section and delivering that so I'm really excited because obviously I love diversity I love spreading awareness for trans health and things like that and it's something we really really need in university for student nurses to give the best care possible to their patients we need diversity we need equality so I'm really really excited to be setting this up and getting it out there and just hopefully making change to the future and I'm not a hundred percent sure how much I'm going to vlog about it just because I'm very wary now that I'm on the other side I'm on the educating of confidentiality I'm very wary of giving things away that I shouldn't be and I've always been wary of things like that anyway even as a nurse I'm probably not going to be vlogging at university itself one because I don't want to give away where I'm working so I think a lot of my vlogging is going to be possibly from home from this view um I might take you around um I might do some vlogging at university we'll see what happens and how things go and progress and things like that um I know I'll be sharing some bits on Twitter because the university is very active on Twitter so I'm going to be doing a lot of twittering um so if you're on my twitter have a look go and add me and I'll add you back and all that jazz but we'll see we'll see we'll see what happens I'm really excited though um I'm at home the minute I walked through that door on the first day I was home so yes that is it for 2022 um there has been some highs there's been some lows of 2022 you know I've changed a couple of jobs we've got our cat Isaac who some of you have seen on social media on my previous youtube vlog um we've had a proposal but then there has been some lows as well we've had some unfortunately some family members that have passed away uh my my own dad as well has been very very ill this year um and I'm hope he's going to make it through 2023 um but yeah but we have had some lows but we have to try and focus on the positives of 2022 and the good things that have happened whilst recognising that we do have low points in life but it's really really important that we we recognise the struggles we recognise those low points we have our moments you know we cry we get under a duvet we kick we scream do whatever you can to just release that emotion that you're feeling and then rebuild it rebuild it and move on in a way if you can because you have two options in this life you let something eat away at you and every single day passes by anyway or you try and change things if you can and alter things and try and create a positive environment instead for yourself and keep going and I know that probably sounds really really harsh and I fully understand that sometimes you can't change things sometimes it's just the way it is um but we can change how we react to things and how we move on and just dealing with it the best we can with what we've got so on that happy note um I hope you all have an amazing 2023 and wishing every single one of you so much love joy happiness good health as well and just let's make 2023 even better than 2022 happy new year everybody