 Hello everyone, thank you so much for tuning in and these are my top tips for placements. You want to be calling your placement about two weeks in advance to get your rotors to find out if there's parking, to find out if they've got a kitchen area to make lunch, a fridge, a microwave. What sort of facilities there are for you for your food and your breaks. It's really good to introduce yourself to the team as well and it's really going to put your nerves at ease just by listening to that person on the end of the phone ydych chi'n gyd? Dysgu'n meddwl i chi i'w gweld i ddoeithio'r cyfnod, felly ddim yn ddifeti'n gyd i ddechrau'r cwrnod i dda i'r ffordd i ddechrau'r gael. Fe'r ysgawdd yw'r gweithio'r ffordd i'w gweithio'r gweithio'n gweithio. Felly, mae'r ffordd i'w gweithio'r gweithio, mae'r ffordd i'w gweithio'r cyffredinol, ddim yn helpu a'r gweithio'r gweithio'r gweithio'r ffordd i'w gweithio'r gweithio. However, I must say, sometimes when you ring a particular placement, they might not know that you're coming and they might be a little bit confused and some communication errors and difficulties, but please don't let that worry you, just speak to them, speak to your placement manager, speak to your university placement team as well, and just make them aware of what's going on. Maybe they just need to send an email over or something because there's been that missed email maybe, or technology failure, something would have happened but don't worry about this, curd diolch i dda, gyn nhw gyfaent i'r ddur interfer. Pwydnetwch allan o pa rhoi, bod ar y meddwl yn gallu llwyddo meddwl produced mewn tael ond y mynyddai methu. Po dis Maarai mewn gwah Majestyr ond.エriwch eu carrion sydd, gallant y map G�ynwch,adows unaill, eks derbyngu'r map i fod dda nhw.ächen drendwch ar gyfer blerhau dd іch wedi iawn y buser llefodau o'r seJA Phantom alwais er gennw hefyd i llwyddo i该w Centrianol i wahanol bod gy deprived hno part었어요... metrw, any sort of transport walking if it's close enough to walk, it's just good to know the route and make sure you do that test run as well so that you know how long it's going to take, what time you're going to be there for and you can sort of be a little bit more organised then make sure you're on time. Make sure you do some reading around the area that you're going to be working in so for example if you're going into cardiology look up some cardiology topics and just do that little bit of research so that you've got an idea of what you're going to be getting yourself into on the paper. It helps to put your nerves at ease as well if you know what sort of area you're going into and what they do on that placement so there's no surprises when you sort of show up, it's quite a useful one I think. Also you can ask other students in the cohorts above, in your class if you've already had one placement and you're going on to a next placement. It's really useful to ask other students what their experience of that particular ward was or community setting was, whatever area it is it's just really useful to get that inside information from other students as well. The placement areas I've had already are, my first placement in first year was abdosurgical and there was a lot of observations involved so just know if you're going to any surgery based ward you're going to need to know your observations and your ranges for your blood pressure, temperature because you're going to be doing those continuously that's going to be a main priority on that type of ward because there's a lot of risks with surgery and you're going to pick up those early warning signs if something's gone wrong after surgery so that was my first ward. My second ward was a stroke ward but we also had some various patients come on because of the bed shortages and things so we did have some other patients on the ward as well as stroke patients and that was just managing speech, swallowing, a lot of nutrition and diet factors. Observations again, we had a lot of checklists and assessment tools to go through, a lot of personal care as well for those people that couldn't physically help themselves because they've had an effect on their arm or the leg so it was a lot of personal care and helping in that way as well and trying to get this holistic caring so trying to stimulate them, keep them motivated, keep them going because it's tough having a stroke and just anything you can do that's going to benefit and make that person's quality of life a lot better and keep them motivated is going to be a massive improvement and then my last placement was my GP surgery which a lot of you already know I loved this, I absolutely adored general practice nursing and I've done a lot of logs on it so go back and have a look if you haven't seen those yet and get a feel of what general practice involves. I love general practice nursing so I'm not going to say any more about that because I go on about it too much and then my current ward that I'm on is orthopedics and trauma. Now I have been on an orthopedics and trauma ward before but it's been about six years so I'm a little bit out of touch and it is all about pain management again, observations because it's a surgical ward. It's all about wound management as well, checking the dressings, clips, clip removals, all of that thing, PCA so management which is patient controlled analgesia so you'll have things like morphine so there's that risk of respiratory depression so you need to really be on the ball with your observations and monitoring the breathing and things like that. So it's really interesting and I've got six weeks left I think of this placement and then I'm done for second year, I can't wait and then next year I'm going into community rotation program which I'm really excited about but they're the main placements I've had so far and just some little things added just to give you a rough idea of what they involve so I hope that helps a little bit. Make sure you take water with you or any type of fluids because you're going to need to keep hydrated on the ward, you're going to be on your feet 24-7 so make sure you take a water bottle or something. Your own cup as well, it's really important to have your own cup, put your name on it so you can have tea and coffee, take your own tea and coffee as well because not every area will supply you with tea and coffee and milk so it's really important to take your own as well. But a lot of places do provide tea and coffee and milk so if you're on one of those places, amazing. But yeah it's really important to keep yourself hydrated, keep your nutrition up as well so make sure you have snacks for your short breaks and then for your main lunch break take a meal with you. It's really really important that you keep your energy up and your fluids up and look after yourself basically because it is hard work on the wards. You're going to be exhausted and you're going to need that extra burst of energy at lunchtime. Pens, pens, pens, always carry a whole load of pens in your bag because they will get stolen on the ward. It's just what happens, you lend your pen to someone because no one's ever got a pen. You lend your pen, you will never see that pen ever again. Just make sure you've got a whole stock of pens on you because it is the most common thing that happens in my experience and other students' experiences that I've spoke to as well. So always have a pen and a notepad, keep a little notepad in your pocket. If you come across any good information, if your mentor is talking you through things, jot it all down because it's really good to keep notes of everything and you've got it then in your pocket so you don't need to keep asking all the same questions again. You've got it there to reflect back onto. Also always have a fob watch on you either side, wherever, somewhere on you have a fob watch because you're going to need that to do the pulse and the respiratory rate when you're doing your observations. It's really important. Also I like to have the rubber silicone ones because they're really easy to wipe down. Keep it clean and get yourself a fob watch. They're really cheap as well. You can get them on Amazon, eBay, they're next to nothing so it's well worth having a fob watch. It's probably one of the most important things I can say. Because when you haven't got one, it's a nightmare. Mine stopped working for one shift and that was enough. I hated it because I had to keep looking at the clocks on the walls and it's really hard to monitor someone's breathing whilst looking at a clock on the wall. It's impossible. So just get yourself a fob watch and save yourself a whole lot of hassle. So don't worry if you're not with your mentor all of the time. Please don't get offended because your mentor is very, very busy and sometimes they will make you go round with the healthcare assistants or a different staff nurse. That's absolutely fine and the people that you're going to be learning from the most is the healthcare assistants because they are so knowledgeable. They are so hands-on with the patients. They are amazing to learn from. So please don't take this as an offence and really grow and learn from it because it's amazing and you are going to learn so, so much that way. So please, I beg you, don't be offended. But at the same time, if you feel like you are not learning anything and there's particular things that you want to do, ask. Just speak to your mentor, say, oh, I'm really sorry. I feel like I could learn a lot more from you. Do you mind if I just do this with you or there's something in particular I want to experience? Do you mind if you could just show me this because I feel like you're the best person to show me this? It's just the way you approach people. Don't get aggressive. Don't get funny about it. Speak to your mentor. Be open and honest because that's what we're all taught and you'll be absolutely fine. Ask questions, questions, questions all of the time. Don't feel stupid because you don't know something because we don't all know everything. Nobody knows it all and nobody likes to know it all. So please don't be feeling scared and anxious and silly if you don't know something. Even if it's the most simplest things, promise you everyone goes through this. Even the most top highest level paid consultants ask for advice because they don't know everything. So please just take that into consideration and make sure you ask everything. If you see your mentor doing something in a particular way, just say, OK, why do you do it this way? If there's a particular wound dressing and you wonder why that wound dressing or another wound dressing, ask them why, why are they using that wound dressing? Because they're so knowledgeable and you need to know the theory behind everything that you're doing and your mentor's doing. And it's just a really great way to learn and grow as a person and as a nurse. So please ask questions, always ask questions. And I think mentors really enjoy you asking questions as well. Because one, it's testing their knowledge and keeping their brain on the move. And two, it shows you're really interested. It shows you're enjoying your placement. You want to know more about that thing, that particular area, whatever's going on in that area. So please ask questions and don't feel stupid about it. Don't be afraid to speak up. If you see something that's not quite right or you've been taught something different to how you're seeing something different, does that make sense? That doesn't make sense in my head. But you know what I'm saying. If you see something you think, oh that's not quite right, we've been taught this way. Don't be afraid to say that because you are the most up-to-date person. You're getting the fresh new up-to-date information from university and they might not know that. So it's really nice to put your input if you know something and it's really good to provide your input and have your say. And don't be afraid to speak up about it. But also remember professionalism because you're not there to have a go and tell people how to do their job. You are there to just provide an input and help where you can. So maybe just say something like, oh okay, we've been shown this way. If you try to do it this way it's much easier. You know, it's just the way you say things. So as well as speaking up, just be careful and go about it in a professional manner. And also speak up for your patients. If you see something that's not right, please advocate for your patients and protect your patients at all times because you might see someone do something on the ward and you might not agree with it and you might think oh, they're a bit rough with that patient and you need to be that advocate for that patient. There might just be little things and if you feel confident to approach that person then just say oh okay, why did you do something? You don't even have to challenge them. Just ask them questions, get them thinking, just say oh okay, why do you do it this way? Is there a reason behind that? What's the evidence-based practice behind that? Get them really thinking to tell you why they're doing something the way that they're doing and it'll really make them think about what you're saying and what they're doing and they might not even realise they're doing something. They're just so, on that autopilot mode of doing something over and over and over they're so used to doing it, they might not actually think about what they're actually doing. So getting them to think about it, it might just make them just do things a little bit differently maybe. If something really serious happens, make sure you speak to your mentor, your placement management team and your university placement team as well, just make sure you report things and if you don't feel comfortable doing that you can always wait until the end of your placement until you're not there anymore and then report it if that's how you feel comfortable doing it but as long as you say something I think that's the most important thing I can say is just make sure you report it and say something. Make sure you're following the WHO organisation guidelines on safe glove use and apron use personal protective equipment because one, people don't use them enough two, some people overuse them. There's no balance, some people will overuse gloves and aprons and some people really won't use them enough so follow the WHO guidelines I'm going to put all the links below as always just have a look at the WHO pyramid triangle of glove use and see when you should be using gloves and when you shouldn't be using gloves because people are using them really unnecessarily and it's costing a lot to the NHS to provide gloves and aprons and when they're just getting used for nothing. It's really silly but it also depends on you as a person as well if you don't feel comfortable not using gloves I suppose you've got to judge that on yourself I suppose but just have a look, check out the links and you'll experience it when you're on the ward and get a feel of the place and what you should and shouldn't be doing so don't worry about it too much. It was just an extra tip that's a massive bugbear of mine is the overuse of gloves and aprons and I just had to add it, I'm really sorry.