Case Studies
Abbie Moss
Student nurse on placement at Lakeside Care Home in Wigan
Abbie Moss
Student nurse on placement at Lakeside Care Home in Wigan
Before working at Lakeside I had negative perceptions about what care homes were like. I expected the care home to smell, have a depressing atmosphere and be full of residents with a poor quality of life…..
However, since spending time at the care home, my views have completely changed! I have seen how important the small things are. Communication between staff and residents is essential to providing the best care and this is seen with all staff including cooks, domestics and office staff not just carers and nurses.
I have learnt how to provide true, holistic, person-centred care and will take this with me for the rest of my training and when I become a nurse.
Callum Ashton
2nd-year Adult Nursing Student on placement at Ashton View nursing home in Wigan
Callum Ashton
2nd-year Adult Nursing Student on placement at Ashton View nursing home in Wigan
I had worked previously in both the NHS and social care and so I had a good insight into both before being allocated my 2nd year placement at Ashton View. I know some students have preconceived ideas about social care and for some reason they can be very negative without knowing the true facts as they haven’t experienced social care! I have spoken to some who believe that being so connected to the NHS would mean they get better support so discount social care right away. They don’t realise the opportunities on offer.
For me, the social care placement was a great confidence booster and I realise the importance of being part of a small and very supportive team to help me learn and develop. I learnt more about personal relationships and putting the resident at the heart of everything I do than I would ever have learnt on a ward in acute services. My communication skills improved, and I really began to understand the ethos of the fact that in social care
The care plans are very in-depth, and you must adapt yourself to fit in with the residents and not expect them to adapt to meet your needs. You begin to learn what they really want and what is important to them.
I also learnt so much about team work from working with multidisciplinary teams, nursing home nurses and care staff alike. It’s a myth that nurses just sit there doing medication
I was fully involved and encouraged to learn and develop. For example, I learnt so much from everyone about Parkinson’s disease and the impact of medication, pharmacology, wound care, dementia, oxygen care, skin care to name but a few.
I had a great PEF who would visit every week to support me in lots of other areas and to recognise and celebrate my own successes – She was marvellous! I was more than able to meet my competencies.
I think it’s important that this handbook could help prepare other students and go some way into influencing them to take note of what a social care placement could be like and how it could be a real positive, in fact a MUST to experience.
Tanya Taylor
2nd Year BSc Adult Nursing Student at Bolton Hospice
Tanya Taylor
2nd Year BSc Adult Nursing Student Bolton Hospice placement
My final placement of the first year was at Bolton Hospice. When I was first informed of the placement area I had mixed emotions, firstly I was excited to learn from the nurses who had originally inspired me to study to be a nurse. But I was also apprehensive that I might find it upsetting and a gloomy place to be.
Fortunately, I couldn’t have been more wrong! The hospice itself is a light and welcoming, the staff are amazing and show how to provide holistic care to the patients and their loved ones.
I have learnt lots of clinical skills including catheter care and syringe driver use. All the members of the MDT at the hospice are willing to teach students their valuable roles in person-centred end of life care. The hospice has inspired me to involve not only the patient but in their own care but their friends/families who are often effected negatively when their loved one is unwell.
I will take so many skills forward into my future role as a nurse learnt at the hospice and which can apply to endless areas of nursing.
Christine Musariri
2nd-year Student Nurse on placement at Plane Tree Court Nursing Home in Stockport
Christine Musariri
2nd-year Student Nurse on placement at Plane Tree Court Nursing Home in Stockport
I did my 1st placement at the nursing home and honestly it was the best experience I’ve ever had! I had a fantastic practice assessor with loads of experience, and she helped me build my confidence and become the student nurse I am today.
I was an active part of the team, attending and inputting to multi-disciplinary team meetings, working with GP’s and other specialist nurses from the community and learnt a lot about specific conditions such as wound care and diabetes. I had so many opportunities and because the nursing home was relatively small people really invested their time in me. Social care can train future nurses and they can do it well. It doesn’t matter where that student ends up in their career it just goes to make an impact on being part of something – 1 more nurse for people who need it.
I think that all student nurses should do their first placement in social care because what you learn from the start in such a great, supportive environment stays with you forever and you can keep building on this. I was given loads of opportunities but what stays in my mind more than ever was working with one man who was an engineer by trade. I had built up a great relationship with him over time and this meant being able to communicate and show empathy as well as professionalism and skill. He was deteriorating quickly but we still managed to have our conversations about his life and his job as an engineer. This was an important lesson about getting to really know and understand people and giving them time so that a relationship could develop. We all feared he was reaching the end of his life and it was very hard for me. I know about professional boundaries but in a nursing home setting you do develop strong bonds because you have time to care. To my amazement one morning when I arrived, I came in to see him standing up. What!!!! I said. I’ve never felt so good!
He used to call me “My Nurse” and was always pleased to see me.
I wanted to contribute to this handbook because it’s important for other students to hear what a great opportunity social care can offer them. Don’t believe in the myths and don’t miss out by closing your mind to what could be for you, like it was for me the best experience ever!
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