[1. Why I Became A Nurse]

[My personal story, currently a bit too negative as I was in a foul mood when I wrote it. Will redo at some future point. Ripped from the cache of google - Mental Nurse ]

Why Become A Nurse ?

This is called “Why become a nurse?” it should really be titled “Why I became a nurse” since I can’t speak for anyone else. Don’t do it for the money. Simple being a caring person probably is not enough. Mental health nursing is difficult and emotionally trying, an ability to distance oneself from another’s misery is essential.

BN: Before Nursing.

Very simply I went into nursing as it was far better than living on benefits in a poverty stricken city. I had no inclination to enter the caring profession before my sister in law (General Nurse) nagged at me to get off my bum and do something.

I used to be one of those people that kept on listening to other’s problems. I felt this may give me an advantage in mental health. This was an error.

I applied to a Health College (just the one), told them I could read and write and got accepted for an interview. At my interview I spoke to a man who appeared to have a serious drugs problem. He asked why, I twittered on about an interest in psychology and wanting to care for people, we did some written test type thing and some weeks later I got a letter telling me I was accepted.

Hooray. Almost straight away I started being asked for health advice by my friends and family. Why ? I don’t know.

Nurse Training.

I started at the tender age of 25, which at least gave me the benefit of some life experience. How people survived the training right out of secondary education I don’t know.

Where to Live

I got a place in a nurses’ home, on site at a general hospital. I think the building was actually condemned, at one point in the next three years one of the rooms would decide to fall into the room underneath.

On the night before the first day of the course we all got to know one another by the traditional means of getting as drunk as a bunch of skunks.

The main benefit of specialist nursing accommodation I found was there was always a large group of people you could call upon for assistance with nursey stuff. It made it easy to get to know people.

I think now most of the nurses residences have been flattened and sold off. With higher education institutions taking over nurse education they’ll probably want you to stay in overly expensive student accommodation with people that don’t work shifts and will ask you for health advice every five minutes. The upside would be spending time with people that aren’t nurses.

The ‘Welcome’ lecture was awe inspiring. We were told that one in four of us would not make it to the end of the course and that we would be ‘changed’. Full of motivation we started our new lives as student nurses. Project 2000 nurses at that.

Project 2000

We all got a lot of grief for being project 2000. Qualified staff repeatedly told us that it was all theory and no practical “It used to be better”, obviously we would all end up as massive brain boxes that were no actual use on the wards. Students I have mentored recently tell me they are getting much the same thing.

My sister in law tells me that her training just prior to project 2000 was very similar to what she did. The organisation of it was slightly different. The content was much the same.

These staff are speaking rubbish. Tell them I said so if you like The training is only part of the story (Project 2000 aimed to include at least 1500 hours of ward based practice). What is important is general outlook on the job. The ability to relate to people and be concerned. Being able to learn from mistakes and importantly having a degree of self worth. Most people that put down modern nurse training have not done it. Their own training is seen through a rose tinted haze.

Most of the mentors I worked with were very positive. Their biggest problem with student nurses was often the extra paperwork attached. Especially if it was complicated and contained a lot of jargon.

We had approx 120 people in our intake, just over 40 were mental health. By the end of the three year course we had three separate suicide attempts, at least a dozen on antidepressants and an unknown number of novice nurses unleashed on the world.

The course was a fairly solid mix of 50:50 theory and practical. The first 18 months was all round training, the rest was specific mental health training. I believe the balance is different now.

Nursing in Theory

The theory side of the training wasn’t too hard. Well until the end of the course.

The Common Foundation - Training for one and all.

The first 18 months was a bit of everything. Social and Behavioural Sciences, Anatomy and Physiology, occasional practical exercises (Hand washing, Bed Making, Picking keys up off the floor, Pushing trolleys about and looking important,How to inject a sponge with a plaster on it1) some days were just like being on the ‘Generation Game’. Probably if you have a few O grades and a fairly good at English you shouldn’t have much problem. As long as you apply yourself and don’t regularly go to the pub every lunch time and return to the lecture room gently smelling of booze.

Expect to do a lot of essays. Almost all the course work we had to produce was essay based. Following that presentations were popular. We only had two sit down and answer the questions type test. Once at the end of the first 18 months and one at the end of the course.

We were trained in large groups of about 30 to 40. I think now they try to train people in small groups of about a dozen.

The Second Half - Mental Health

The second half of the course was brilliant. Almost all the tutors knew their stuff very well and obviously enjoyed it. Often backing up the theory with entertaining tales from their days on the wards.

Nursing in Practice

Practical training is difficult to describe. During the first 18 months all students had to do a bit of everything.

Children’s nursing I really enjoyed, five weeks of acting like a big kid and larking about.

General nursing I loathed. Five weeks of Hell on a very old fashioned ward were they only gave the general nursing students any support, also I don’t like being around sick people. Others on the course said they got a lot out of their general experience.

Learning disability was good, eventually. Five weeks with people who had very limited brain function, it sadly took weeks before I could actually start seeing them as individuals and taught me quite a lot about how I looked at other people and made judgments. It did teach me that no matter how much someone is damaged by life, disorder, disease or anything there is always a person behind it all. Of course the problem is when the person behind it all seems to be a very nasty piece of work. Thankfully this was by far the exception as far as the clients were concerned. Midwifery… we spent two weeks discussing what would happen if a pregnant woman decided she was about to give birth in Marks & Spencers. Or we went to the pub, the memory grows dim.

Mental Health Practical Training.

Mental health ward experience was a mixed bunch.

Long Term Care (or Slow Rehab)

My first ever mental health ward with a client group all of whom had resided in hospital longer than I had been alive. On the whole they were very settled and not at all threatening, I was still terrified. People said really odd things and acted strangely2 It was quite easy in some ways, the residents all had well established patterns of behaviour and were quite tolerant of student nurses ‘practicing’ with them. The problem tended to be trying to fit in with a long established team that was quite set in it’s ways. One of the most exciting things was a visit by the hospital managers. Which resulted in borrowing all the nice pictures, pot plants, ornaments etc from other wards and sprucing everything up just for one day. Then after the visit putting everything back to normal. The problem with long term wards was lack of funding within a tight funding environment.

Day Hospital

My lasting memory of this place was the relaxation group. Generally a job students could do without much trouble. What no one had ever told me was relaxation for some clients could bring on a psychotic episode. There we were all nicely relaxing, the sound of snoring could be heard starting up. Suddenly the screaming started. I was so startled that I almost joined in. A poor woman was having a very bad episode. It was a good placement for speaking to people. I remember a good mix of staff always motivated trying to set up various groups to involve as many people as possible and normally only getting a selection of the same people each time. A lot of the service users seemed to use it as a social gathering place.

Acute Admissions

Two main memories here.

The first time I saw ECT. The doctor was very good. The problem was he looked exactly like Rasputin the mad monk. Which I do not think would be the last thing you want to see before he knocks you out and zaps your synapses. I was very surprised when I saw how small a seizure was required, even though it had been described in some detail during theory. During this placement I had time to see ECT work. Before training I thought ECT was a barbaric remnant of the days people used to be chained to the walls. After I knew it was a potentially life saving treatment for many people.

I took a manic client out for a walk round the town. He was a lovely man but he kept pushing the limits. He could easily tell I was a nervous student and I was on my own with him. So eventually after dragging me around half the town he decided to test me. We were walking back to the hospital and he started running down the street in the other direction. I panicked, frozen in place. I thought my placement had gone down in flames. What was I meant to do, run after him ? Then it clicked. I turned to look at him running down the street, he was keeping an eye on me. I gave him a smile and a cheery little wave. He stopped running and looked back at me as I turned around and strolled back towards the hospital. Before getting half way back he had rejoined me with a cheeky grin on his face and his hands in his pockets. It may sound stupid but I was quite proud of myself.

Elderly (this may have been in the Common Foundation Prog)

A privately run nursing home. The trained staff were good. The assistants would have been good if they weren’t sixteen and only employed for their cheapness. It was an old town house, with an extension, stuffed full of as many old people as it could get away with. Three to a room, no private bathrooms, narrow corridors. I was the first male student they had ever had. This should not be seen as an attack on young nursing assistants. Rather an attack on employers who take the cheapest they can get. Give no training beyond the minimum required by law and don’t give a monkeys about rapid turnover and lack of continuity because there will always be someone else along for a job.

Rehabilitation

[FIXME: Write something here.]

[I actually ended up working in rehab I really should fill this in.]

The other placements were repetitions of the above.

The training did change me. It removed all my patience for listening to others problems. It also gifted me with a massive overdraft. It also obviously turned me into a qualified RMN when I had to try and learn everything the training had missed out.

1Only one of those is made up.

2Yes I know I should have expected it… but it wasn’t like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Some of it made no sense at all!.