 a dwi'n rhaid i'r vlog, ac byddai chi rydyn ni'n dwy'n ychwanegwyd, rydyn ni'n ddweud i'r Michael, rydyn ni'n ddweud y ddweud, ac rydyn ni'n rhan o'r byd o'r lechlau cyngor. I'w'r video o'r gweithio yn ymwneud ymddangos yn y safon, i'r cyfnod, i'r cymdeithas, i'r ymddangos, y gallu gwirio, ym mwyaf, i'r gweithio, i'r cyfnod, i ddweud i ymddangos, … ac rhoi ddodau'r ffordd y cyf drew i ymweldau roi'r pethau… … ac roi'n edrych yn fnyddio'n ymddangos o'r hineic, yw'r hoffa am ffodol i'r penderfyn… … ac roi'n edrych yn ymdweithio'n fffodol i'r hoffa i'r hoffa… … ac roi'n edrych yn ymweldau, yw o'n edrych yn glenau cyhoesion… … o un hwnnw o'r honno, o rhesu mae'r le name, o'r argynneud sy'n hoffa'u ymweld… I'm hoping something in this video is going to help you. And of course a disclaimer as always, I am not an expert. I don't have a degree in confidence and motivational speaking or anything like that. I'm a nurse. I can only go by my own experiences, what works well for me, what I've seen around me, my friends, family, colleagues, that sort of thing, the things that they've done, tried and tested things. I can only go by those sort of things and give you my best, honest advice possible and hopefully it'll work for you. But the main tip throughout everything is always you know yourself, you know what works for you, what doesn't work for you. You are the best person to judge yourself, but hopefully some of the tips that I give today, some of the advice I can give today, you can mould and edit it into your own life and something will work for you, fingers crossed. Firstly, what is confidence? Confidence is very much about believing in yourself, believing in your own abilities, your own ideas. It's about understanding and accepting who you are and confidence doesn't mean being this outgoing extrovert. That's not what confidence is, it's the complete opposite. You can be very quiet, shy and introvert and still be confident in your abilities. That is me, I am that person. And there's so many things that can really affect your confidence in life, whether it's personal situation, breakup, family problems, you could be bullied for example, you could be teased about your looks and your appearance. Other things like social media can have a massive negative effect in your confidence because you're seeing these people doing all these 101 amazing things and you're thinking, hang on, I'm not doing these amazing things, what does that mean about me? It could be things like your results at school, that was one thing that knocked my confidence that I almost didn't go into nursing because of. Because I got really poor grades in my GCSEs, so it really knocked my confidence. I didn't think I was worth anything because of that and I based everything on that situation. But instead I didn't look at, okay, why did I get those grades? What was going on around me? You know, it's really tough being a teenager, growing. I had a death in the family, I had to move house, I had to move area, I had a whole load of things happen. Right, smack bang in the middle of my GCSEs that had a massive effect on that grade. So I've learned to really reflect on things and assess the situation for what it is and what's happened and grow and learn and develop from that. Other things that can affect your confidence, things like health problems, your physical appearance, pressures from society to be a certain way, to look a certain way, to do well in life, to get married, to have a job, but who says you have to be like that? So let me tell you now, tip one, do not listen to society, do not feel you have to fit into this small box to belong and to be confident and to have this amazing life and stuff like that. Shut that down right now. It's not true. The world lies to you, society lies to you. It's okay to look at whatever way you want. It's okay to be whoever you want. It's okay to have different career paths. It's okay to be a single mum. It's okay to be a strong independent woman and be a leader and focus on your career instead of a family. Don't let anybody tell you any different. So firstly, there's all different levels of confidence in our lives. So things like if I've never done a skill before, so as a student nurse, first year student nurse, you're not going to know anything unless you've done healthcare before, unless you've done these certain skills before. You're not going to know how to do it. So you're not going to be confident in that skill. You're not going to feel confident in that skill because you've never done it before and you know that it's going to be on a patient and there could be harm in some way. So your confidence is going to be a bit at the start, which is absolutely normal. It's absolutely fine. So you kind of can't be confident in something you've never done before. Does that make sense? I hope I'm making sense because in my head it makes sense. So for example, inserting a catheter. Some people are really not confident in this. Some people are confident in this. I know before I ever learnt this skill, I had no clue how to do it. So I wasn't confident in it. I didn't feel confident in it. But once I'd done my theory behind it at university, I did the skill sessions and then I was faced with a patient. My confident was still a bit. I hope I get this right because if this goes wrong, this isn't good. But once I'd done the theory, I'd done the skill session. I did it on a real-life person, a real-life patient. I was like, oh, that's it. That's all there is to it. OK, I can do this now. And I felt way more confident. And from that point on, after that first patient, I was really confident in catheters and I was always the person like, oh, I'll do this. I'll do that. I'm fine with this. I'll never, never, never forget the moment I was on award and there was this really what they called a tricky patient because they could never get the catheter in. I said, well, let me have a go because for some reason, it's a skill that I'm OK at and that I'm quite good at for whatever reason. I don't know why. It was just one of the things I could always just get first time and it was done. So we went in and I set it all up and I was putting this catheter in and I remember my mentor saying to me, do you want a torch light? Do you want to see it? And I was like, nah, I've got this. Don't you worry, this is straight in. It makes me laugh so much. I think you had to be there because when I'm saying it out loud, it doesn't actually sound that funny, but it was just the way I was like, I've got this. Inwent the catheter job done and I was always just that confident person with catheters and the same with blood tests. I've always been really good at blood tests. I don't know why it was just something that I was the person that people went to. If someone had a phobia, if they had a tricky vein or something like that, I could always get it for some reason and I always had one of those days though where I couldn't get anything. It doesn't matter how big the vein was. It was popping out for whatever reason. Something happened on that particular day where I couldn't just couldn't do it and I had to get somebody else in. And that's the great thing about teamwork as well because something that you're not very confident in, something that you're not very good at maybe, that you know somebody else is, there'll be someone on your team that is really good at particular skill. For whatever reason, they are the royalty of that skill and they will be the person that you go to for that. And I was the same. I was good at bloods but there was somebody that was top level way better than me that they were my number one person. If I couldn't get it, I know this person will get it like that. And there will always be that person in every area that will just have a good skill and you will have your own good skills that you're really good at, that you're really confident within. And that's just what makes a great team because you all come together to help each other out in the things that you aren't so comfortable with. But to get confident in a particular skill like that, like the clinical skills, it takes practice. You won't always feel confident. You know, you might have the theory. You might have that first attempt on a patient and then you might be like, oh, actually, I'm feeling really nervous. I'm not confident at this. You have to keep practicing. You have to keep pushing yourself forward. That is going to be my main tip for the whole of this vlog. Push yourself even when you're not confident. You push yourself, you look confident, poker face and you just do it. And the more you practice, the more you do it, the more confident you'll feel because you're getting it right. And even if you get little bits wrong, you learn, you change practice and you do better next time and you just smash it next time. It's growth. We all reflect on everything we do. Even the good times that I've had, even the good things that have happened out there, I always reflect back and say, how do I keep that going? How do I be that good next time? There's always room for improvements. There's always room to build on your confidence in clinical skills and things like that. And if you are a student nurse, if you're at university, I know at Birmingham City University, we had the clinical skills room. There's still the clinical skills room there that you would go and you can practice all of these amazing skills, whether it's cannulation, wound dressings, whether it's washing a patient, whether it's catheter care, blood pressures, that sort of thing. There is a skills room and there's instructions. There's the equipment to go out and practice in that safe space. And I'm hoping that all your universities have that. Every university should have this, I'm hoping. Fingers crossed you've got that because that's very good practice. And if you go in there and you practice with your friends, you get way more confident at it when you go out onto placement. Also something that I did was practice at home on friends and family. Obviously I'm not going to do a catheter or blood testing or something like that. But things like your vital signs, your blood pressure, your pulse rate, your respiratory rate, your temperature, I was able to practice all of those things on my family and friends around me to get more confidence in that. So I did go on to Amazon. I bought just a really cheap set, like a manual blood pressure set, a thermometer, a saturations probe, that sort of thing. Just really cheap little bits, nothing too expensive just to get that practice at home. And that's how I became really confident in my manual blood pressure because I was practicing all the time and I got more and more confident at it. But I know as students, we are poor, broke. We can't be afforded in these sort of things. So this is why I said firstly, make use of your skills, session space, any sort of simulation spaces you have at your university. I'm hoping that they all have them. But I'm hoping that you have got that space that you can go and you can practice in between lectures, in between sessions. If you're out on placement, you've got days off, go into union practice. If you can, just to get a little bit more confident. And the same on placement, if you're on placement and there's a particular skill that you're not confident in, speak to your mentor, speak to the nurses around you and say, I want more practice in this area and just do as much as you can just to get more confident in it. And it'll just flow nicely and your confidence will grow. Fingers crossed. Now, our brain has a lovely way of lying to us on a daily basis and telling us that we're not confident at something. Oh my, and then we start thinking about the bad things that can happen when we're about to do something. Like even if it's a presentation, like public speaking, if it's clinical skills, you're going on to placement, that sort of thing, anything, you will overthink the situation and you will, this is, I know this is something that I did all the time and I still do, but I've worked out a really good way to stop thinking like that and to just get it like that before you start overthinking and you end up a wreck on the floor or something ridiculous because it does happen. But your brain, it does lie to you. It will say to you, oh my God, you're going to get this wrong. What if this happens? What if that happens? You're not going to be able to do this because you haven't had enough practice. You haven't done this. You haven't done that. All the people around you are better than you and your brain will constantly tell you that. So what we need to do is stop that thought, firstly stop that thought in its tracks and this is something I actually learned through like mental health pages and things like that. I do my own research on how to change behaviour, how to change your thinking because it's not useful. I've also had counselling sessions before for it because I don't want to think like that and I know that it's a lie. So I want to change that behaviour. So I did go to a counsellor who also gave me these tips and I'm hoping they're going to help you as well with this and hopefully build your confidence a bit and get rid of that self-doubt that we don't need because you're all amazing. But you need to recognise that thought the minute you say, oh, what if? No, you shut that thought down. You have to recognise that you are having that thought and it's not true. So you have to say, whoa, stop. Stop yourself and then change it up. This is going to go right. You have to change it. Positive reinforcement. You have to change that negative into a positive and say, no, nothing's going to happen. This is what's going to happen. I'm going to do this. It's going to go well. The patient's going to be fine. Get rid of it and you have to do that for every single time that thought comes up. You could have 101 thoughts going on in the space of five minutes like I have before and every single time it comes at you, block it. Block it. No, rethink it. Rewire your brain every time. Block it and you're training your brain to think differently. You're training your brain not to let those intrusive thoughts in and just it will completely change the way you think and help you feel more confident over time. But it does take time. This isn't an overnight fix. You have to work on this daily every single time for it to work. My next tip for this as well is every single morning when you wake up, you have to start the day right. Look in the mirror. Say to yourself in that mirror, I am confident. I am worthy. Today's going to be great. I'm going to be a great nurse. Tell yourself that daily because every single day, you're reinforcing that positivity in yourself. You're giving yourself more self-confidence, more self-worth. You're making yourself feel valued because we have to love ourselves before we can go out and love other patients. Not in a weird way like that, but do you know what I mean? We have to have that self-confidence, that self-worth. We have to feel it in ourselves before we go out there and care for other people. And along with that, the power pose. Find your power pose. If you Google all sorts of different power pose, I like the Wonder Woman. Hands on the hips, standing tall, back straight. Hands on the hips. Yes, I'm brilliant. Yes, I'm confident. Yes, I'm worthy and valued. I'm a great nurse. Do that over and over every single morning. Get up and do that in your mirror, looking at yourself, looking into your soul so you believe it. And every single day, your confidence will build, your confidence will grow. I'm not going to lie. I don't do this every single day. Sometimes it slips my mind. Sometimes I'm lazy. Sometimes I forget. It's not for everybody. But it does work and it does make you feel really, really good and your self-esteem does start to really shine out when you start doing that every single day. Just write down your own positive affirmations for yourself. And my last tips are all about you because we need, like I was saying before, we need that self-love first before we can do anything else. And there's a lot of research and papers and studies that have been done within mental health as well that says if we focus on ourselves and work on ourselves, be kind to ourselves, look after ourselves, it can have a massively positive outcome. So the first tip, be kind to yourself. Treat yourself with kindness always. Like I was saying earlier, bash those negative thoughts out the way. Don't listen to them because they're not true. Look after yourself. Make sure you're eating well. You're filling yourself up with fluids. We always advise our patients that, but we should be looking after ourselves too. We should be eating the right things. We should be exercising. We should be getting plenty of fluids. I want to say exercise. I mean just even getting out for a walk. I don't mean going down to the gym. That's not me. I don't do that. But find the right exercise for you that's going to help you and get you out there and get you motivated again. Act confident even if you don't feel it. I was saying this earlier. If you don't feel confident, poker face is on. You're going to look confident. You're going to relax those shoulders, back straight, head up high. Say it with confidence. Do it with confidence. And the more you do that, the more you're showing yourself, I'm confident and you'll start to change hopefully. And lastly, try something new. Like I was saying earlier, push your boundaries. If you're scared of something, if you're worried about some doing something, for example, push yourself, push through that fear if you can. I know it's really, really hard, but that is something I do all the time. I had a massive fear of public speaking as a student. I went out and I booked myself in to public speak in front of people. I was, oh, don't get me wrong. My heart was pounding. I wanted to cry. My legs were shaking and I was like this. Oh, but I pushed myself and doing that and then getting over it at the end and reflecting over the experience and thinking actually what happened? Nothing bad happened. I spoke. I helped some students out. Nothing bad happened from it. So that's reinforcing to your brain to say, this is okay. This is safe. I can do this. So it's trying to squash that fear a little bit and the more you step outside your box, the more you do, the more confident you'll become and the more self-esteem you'll have and you'll feel a lot more better about things. So I think that's everything I have on confidence. I hope something's helped, but I know that it can be really, really hard to do these things and my main message is just always push yourself, push yourself through the fear, push yourself through it to get that more, to get more confidence because if you're constantly talking yourself out of things, you're not going to get anywhere. You're just going to be stolted and you're just going to be stopped in your tracks and you're going to feel even worse about yourself because you haven't done it and then you'll beat yourself up about it. Please, please, please just always push yourself. I know it's hard. I know it's tough, but you will feel so much better for it. So good luck everybody. Get out there, pose, talk to yourself in the mirror, be confident, know that you're confident. Doesn't mean that you're a loud, lairy person. It just means that you're giving safe practice to your patients. Always think about that as well in the back of your mind. This isn't about me being this extravert. It's about safety. It's about safety of my patients because I need to be confident. The NMC code tells me I need to be confident and confident. Just go out there, remind yourself that you are amazing. You can do this. Don't let your brain lie to you and you've got this.