Nurses

If there are any nurses here, I'd be fascinated to hear about nursing and nurse education in your respective countries.

I am an English Registered Nurse, qualified in 2017 with a BSc in Adult Nursing with Honours from my local university. I am a generalist endocrinology and gerontology nurse working in an NHS England district general hospital.

As I say, I'd love to hear about nursing from other people's perspectives. @Gaymalenurse?

 

We use "slide sheets" - polyester sheets we place between the mattress and the bedsheet when we need to move a patient on the bed and a range of hoists and aids. I actually do very little physical manual handling; it's now more about helping the patient to do it themselves, and we have to revalidate our manual handling every year.

Having said that, I did have an obese patient put all of his weight on me one time and that screwed my hip up for a week. Luckily my hospital offers free physiotherapy to all its staff.

 

I studied in Canterbury and the Cathedral is our University church (studied for my anatomy exam in the Cathedral crypt!).

Are you studying for the NCLEX? I know the American system is WAY harder than the British system. We still have to know the same knowledge, but our exams are in the first year and the next two years are assignment based and we spend 50% of the three years on clinical placement.

Have you studied any theories and models of nursing? They were introduced to us in our first year.

I know what you mean about being advocates for health - the Nightingale Pledge refers to "abstain[ing] from whatever is deleterious and mischievous, and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug", PMO is definitely "deleterious and mischievous" and dopamine due to it is definitely a harmful drug which I'm addicted to.

 

You need to study at University for three years to get a BSc (Hons) in Nursing (different unis call it slightly different things). Once you graduate, you have £120 to the Nursing and Midwifery Council who hold the UK nursing register and boom, you're a registered nurse (and £120 every year thereafter)

It's 50/50 between University (Set modules with a 40% pass rate) and Practice (A mixture of specialities which is pass/fail):-

Year 1
Professional Development 1 (Essay)
Collaborative Practice 1 (Essay)
Human Anatomy and Physiology (Written exam)
Principles of Nursing Practice (Essay)
Developing Practice Skills (OSCE)
Promoting Health and Interpersonal Relationships (Essay)
Adult safeguarding (Online exam)
Infection Prevention and Control (Workbook)
Safe Medication (Online exam)
Trauma Orthopaedics & Community care placements

Year 2
Professional Development 2 (Essay)
Collaborative Practice 2 (Essay)
Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, and Medicines Management (Written exam)
Experiences of Health and Illness 1 (Essay)
Experiences of Health and Illness 2 (Group presentation)
Enhancing Person Centred Care (Narrated presentation)
Adult safeguarding (Online exam)
Infection Prevention and Control (Workbook)
Learning disability, general medical, and general surgical placements

Year 3
Professional Development 3 (Dissertation)
Collaborative Practice 3 (Essay)
Delivering Safe and Effective Care 1 (Group presentation)
Delivering Safe and Effective Care 2 (Essay)
Leadership for Professional Practice (Essay)
Transitioning into Professional Practice (Essay)
Adult safeguarding (Online exam)
Infection Prevention and Control (Workbook)
Safe Medication (Online exam)
Specialist medical & emergency department placements.

It all stems from the NMC's standards for pre-registration education, which all unis interpret differently. It's a bit tricky because it's only once you qualify you realise how little you know and how much you're going to spend the rest of your career with your head in textbooks and journals.

 

Sorry, that's so in depth, I was having an urge and it helped to type all that out!

 

Congratulations on finishing! Welcome to the RN family. I found it hard enough studying full time, so you have my utmost respect on doing part-time around your family.

Legislation is the big one which my course barely covered. You don't always think about it until you do something wrong (however minor)! It's definitely country-specific, so I'd suggest searching Australia's legislation and reading the relevant ones (boring I know, but it does help you appreciate the reasons why and how we practice the way we do). As for ethics, check out the International Council of Nurses Code of Ethics, the Geneva Declaration, and I believe the American Nursing Association also has a good code of ethics as well - but I'm sure you already are familiar with them.