A Week in the Life...

I'd say it seems impossible that I haven't managed to blog since August, but it isn't really that surprising. Between placement, uni and work I barely get a minute to myself, and any time that I do get I tend to spend in bed pretending I don't exist. Since August I've finished my rehab placement, had my older age placement changed to Early Intervention, done a term at uni, and this week started my fourth placement - originally planned, again, to be older age, but changed to crisis/home treatment. I'm two shifts in, and the team is lovely, so the next three months (I'm on this placement until literally the day before my birthday in June) will hopefully be enjoyable.

I've been wanting to do a 'week in the life' of blog for a while, but as you might have guessed, I never have any time! But this week I sort of do.


Monday

Today is placement launch day, which means we're off to uni for the morning. We get our practice grids and an assignment set; we're barely in for an hour. A good chunk of our cohort usually goes out to eat together after this, but nobody seems to want to this time. I pick up some placement essentials (notepad, pens, dry shampoo) and head to Nando's with a fellow student nurse. Not the usual good luck meal we usually all have together, but still very nice. Later, I work for the evening: I take a client shopping and out for dinner, not that it feels much like work at all.

Tuesday

Everyone else I know is starting placement today, but I'm not - my mentor won't be in til tomorrow, so I'm at work for the day. I wake up at 7:30am despite not needing to get up until 9am. I get a text from my manager asking me to do a quick call with another client before I head to my first planned call, so it's probably a good thing I woke up early. My day is quite enjoyable: I take a client to the gym (which I get to use myself), we go out with another client for lunch, then I have a team meeting with my manager and a few colleagues. Sarah makes a point of reminding me in front of everyone that she wants me to look after myself whilst on placement, as last time I ended up completely overworking and made myself ill. After the meeting I have one more call, then I try to get an early night as placement starts tomorrow.

Wednesday

It's another early morning, and for the first time, I'm pleased my body seems incapable of sleeping til a decent hour. I allow an hour for my first commute to placement, which is 30 miles away - I take the motorway route despite my satnav suggesting a different way, and twenty minutes later I realise I should have listened to it. When I phoned my mentor a few weeks ago she told me where to park for free but I don't remember the building as well as I thought I did, so I wait in the car and send her a text. I end up paying £6.80 to park for 9 hours! If I'd just held on I could have parked in the staff car park for free. My mentor is lovely and introduces me to the rest of the team, one or two of whom I already know from previous placements. I have an access card already sorted (this is nothing short of miraculous for placement!) and by 11am I'm out visiting clients. The area my placement is in is quite rural so I can already tell most of my time will be spent in cars with nurses. This is actually quite nice, because of all the time for reflection it allows. I'm doing long days on this placement, 8.30am-8pm, but get sent home just after 7. My first day is a success, the worst bit is over.

Thursday

Straight back into placement today. I get my ePEX sorted out with minimal fuss, so I can use the online record system for patients. I meet more nurses on the team, and the lone social worker who has worked with one of my favourite patients from my first placement - we catch up about her and I find out she's doing really well, which is always nice to hear. In the afternoon we have a meeting with the team's doctors to review all of our patients, and we discuss a referral for a potential patient who we have been requested to intervene with, but seems to have no real risk factors. I don't have the nerve to ask why we would need to intervene with a patient who isn't a risk to their self or anyone else, but the social worker finally makes the point and I back her up. The consultant agrees, and we're going to investigate more before deciding what to do. Next time, I'll speak up before someone else. I hope.

Friday

We're in uni today, because we have a module running alongside this placement. Research & EBP isn't anyone's favourite subject, but I'm definitely at an advantage having already done a psychology degree and reading Ben Goldacre's Bad Science to death. All we have to do is choose an article related to something that interests us in mental health, then critique every element of it. Attending a lecture and seminar every week for this is going to be painful; I'd rather just work on it on my own. I try to promise myself that I'll make an effort in the seminars and make my essay easier to write, but I doubt I'll actually do it. After uni, I go out for lunch (again) then go to the gym for a few hours, and after that I'm off to work for the evening. I take my favourite client to the cinema, so again, it's not really like going to work at all.

Saturday

Another work day, but again I wake up much earlier than I need to. I have a handful of calls today, but the second is with my favourite client again for most of the day. We go to the gym together, then buy lots of junk food and watch Lost. Work? What work? My last call of the evening was supposed to last until 10pm but I get a text telling me to finish at 7.30pm - I take another client to the cinema and get back late, but I can hardly complain. I develop a migraine during the evening so my plans to use my early finish to work through my to-do list are ruined and I go straight to bed when I get home at 8.30pm.

Sunday

I wake up before 6.30am on my day off. Did I say day off? Because it really doesn't feel like one -  I have a thousand things to do! Edit my essay, write my reference list, catch up on TV, sort out food for placement, do my timesheet for work, write this blog... It's hard to remember to relax. I take my dad to my sister's flat to pick some things up (despite promising myself I wouldn't get dressed today), and when I get back I have calls and texts from my manager asking me to work tonight. I actually turn her down! It's a miracle. But I need today to myself more than anything else. At least watching my to-do list dwindle relaxes me a bit. And the sun is shining, even if I'm not out in it. Tomorrow the whole cycle begins again: 3 days at work, 3 days on placement. God, it's going to be a long three months...