Tops Tips for Staying Cool

As you have probably noticed, we’re currently experiencing a bit of a heatwave at the moment! This may mean ice cream and sunbathing for some, but for us student nurses it isn’t much fun! From stuffy uniforms and buses hotter than hell, to rushing around ensuring patients are hydrated whilst being dehydrated yourself.

So what the the top tips for staying cool in a heatwave?

1. Sun cream!! Especially if you’re on community or commute via walking/cycling.
2. Keep hydrated***. It’s obvious, and we all harp on about it, but the day will drag more and the heat will hit you harder if you don’t keep drinking cold water or juice. Make sure you have a bottle or jug nearby to remind you, or drink with your patients so you both get the benefit!
3. Don’t over-exert yourself. You are the most important person to take care of in your life! Make sure you take regular little breaks for drinks + a sit down. I know it can be hard, but you’re no use to your patients if you aren’t on top form!
4. Change into your uniform when you get to placement. It prevents you starting your shift in a sweaty mess, and allows your body to cool down on your way home.
5.  Avoid too much caffeine. I know this sounds barbaric (I can’t survive a shift without coffee) but caffeine is a diuretic. That means you’re going to the toilet more, which leads to more water loss. Try not to overdo the coffee intake!
6. Try and get some sleep! Nothing is going to make a hot day longer + harder than lack of sleep. If you need a fan, get one! I know I couldn’t cope without mine.
7. ***Know the signs. Dehydration can be bad news, whether its staff or patients. Make sure you know the signs (headache, dry mouth, not urinating a lot) and keep an eye out. Let someone know if you or a patient is suffering.

Have you been coping with the heat? Send us any tips/tricks via email, Facebook or Twitter !

 

 

Pressure Sores 101

One of the most common nursing buzzwords- pressure sores (AKA pressure ulcers). They can be developed by anyone, and in a wide range of places on the body. As nurses (student or not!) it is our responsibility to report, treat and prevent them.

What is a pressure sore?

A pressure sore is an area of skin that has been deprived of oxygen, due to continuous pressure. This prevents the area of skin getting enough blood, causing the skin to “blanch” (become white due to lack of blood flow). This can then develop into varying degrees of tissue damage; ranging from grade 1 to 4 depending on the severity (NHS Stop the Pressure, 2009).

Grade 1-  skin is intact but blanching, may be some heat/oedema as well 

Grade 2- partial thickness skin loss, looks like an abrasion or a blister. 

Grade 3- full thickness skin loss, some fat may be visible. Possible ‘undermining’ or ‘tracking’ as there is usually depth, depending on the location. This depth can sometimes be covered by slough, which needs to be removed before proper grading can take place. 

Grade 4- full thickness tissue loss, with exposed bone or tendon. There tends to be undermining or tracking, depending on the location. 

Where do they crop up?

Areas that have a hard bony prominence are at risk of pressure sores. This is because they have the least amount of skin protecting itself.

Reference

What factors lead to a higher risk of pressure sores?

There are many factors that increase the risk of pressure sores:

• poor circulation – this could be caused by kidney problems, heart diseases or diabetes.
• reduced/no mobility- it doesn’t have to be long term! even short term loss of mobility (e.g. after an operation) leads to a pressure ulcer risk.
• friction- this is where good practice comes in. People who transfer frequently between bed-hoist-chair or just bed-chair, and being moved up/down a bed are at risk. This is why we use slide sheets!

How can they be treated?

• regular re-positioning/ turns are vital! This helps distribute the pressure, and reduce the risk of the pressure sore from getting worse. You must assess whether the patient is able to do this themselves, or if they require help. Asking the patient (if they have capacity) is always best.
• pressure relieving devices such as airflow mattresses or pressure cushions can be obtained through physiotherapists, occupational therapists, some trusts require nurses to send the referrals (depends on the area).
  

  Reference 

• regular cleaning of the area. Special washes can be used such barrier creams or sprays like ‘Sorbaderm’. This is especially useful for pressure sores on the buttocks/sacrum as they are subjected to lots of moisture.
• dressings! There are a wide range of dressings which can be used on pressure sores, those that have foam are good for extra protection.

 

How can they be prevented?

Reference 

Similar to the above treatment! Encourage your patient to mobilize frequently (if possible) and explain the reasons why. Those who are at risk will be identified by their Waterlow Score (10+). If in the community and the patient has carers/relatives helping with their care, speak to them and ask them to update you on any concerns re: pressure sores. Completing bodymaps whenever a new patient arrives and update it regularly is also important. This allows you to assess the patient’s skin integrity, and keep an eye on any possible developments.

 

If you have any ideas for another ‘101 guide’, please get in contact via facebook, twitter or email us on enhancingplacement@gmail.com.

 

 

What can nursing give to me?

Becoming a student nurse can consume you. With placement and academic work mixed together, it can often feel like all you do is nursing! On top of that, we often focus on what you can do for nursing. But what about what nursing can offer for you?

Recently, I’ve opened my eyes and seen the reciprocity within nursing. It started with my Nursing Therapeutic module, where we’ve been learning about Muetzels model who says that a therapeutic relationship between a patient and their nurse requires three components. These include: partnership, intimacy and reciprocity. Since we explored how a therapeutic relationship could benefit both the patient and the nurse, I thought maybe nurses get more out of their career choice than I thought?

Confidence! Going into placement takes guts. You are literally throwing yourself into new situations with new people everyday, and that takes a certain amount of confidence. Speaking to the wider MDT use to fill me with dread, but now I basically chasing them around for questions. This has reflected into my personal confidence A LOT. I am more sure of myself, and what I want to get out of situations.

Time management. I thought I was organised before I came to uni. I was wrong. I feel I’ve reached a higher-level, as uni has forced me to gain the ability to spread out my work so I’m not over-exerting myself. It’s a VERY good skill, as it’s very easy to become burnt out. Spreading out work helps you fit in the other important stuff that isn’t necessarily related to nursing/uni but is absolutely vital! Get yourself a fab diary and a calendar life will become easier.

Problem-solving. I recently attended an inter-professional workshop with our lovely midwives all about the health needs of refugees. Once we were put into teams, it was like someone lit a spark! Suddenly, adult nurses + midwives + child nurses + mental health nurses were able to outline all these potential solutions to the fictional family we were ‘caring for’. We were more than able to use our combined knowledge to solve the situation with ease!

Honesty. Before uni, I would often be told to do something at work/school and just nod endlessly until they told me to go and do it. What would happen? I would have literally no idea what I was meant to be doing. You can’t really do that in nursing, so you end up asking more questions and understanding where you need support. This not only shows honesty, but it shows a lot of maturity as well.

This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but its great to reflect back on how you’ve grown. I would urge any of you to do the same! Not only is it a useful skill for interviews, but it really helps with realising why this degree is so worth it.

What has nursing given to you? Comment, tell us on facebook/twitter or send us an email!

Social Media Savvy

How many times have you been told about “the dangers of social media”? “It’s online forever!”, or my personal favorite “Just don’t put anything on social media and you won’t have any problems!”. Too often it is portrayed as negative, and it is assumed that social media is an evil within nursing. But is it?

“Look at this silly cat picture”

I am a total social media enthusiast. I’ve used it for well over 10 years now, freely posting funny cat pictures and what I’d had for dinner. But becoming a student nurse altered my habits. I changed my name on Facebook to keep it more private, and ensured that my social media platforms didn’t show my name. I felt as if everything I said may impact my career. That lasted for about an hour on twitter, as I then discovered the huuuge nursing platform available to me! By engaging with twitter chats, reading articles and following other nurses I felt I was part of a wonderful community! The amount of support I have received has been amazing- and I encourage you all to get involved!  Twitter is incredibly easy to use, and you can create an account that can be used purely for nursing.

Completely appropriate and accurate picture to post 

We should be aware of social media. Many student nurses are part of the generation who grew up with it (like myself) so why shouldn’t we embrace it?

There are, of course, cautions. Many nursing-related accounts post really helpful tips of how to stay appropriate on social media. They include tips like: don’t post anything about patients/their relatives/where you work , don’t use offensive language, be kind and don’t try find patients on social media. Pretty simple right? They aren’t horrible scary rules, and (hopefully) don’t put you off getting social media savvy!

If you want to check out some nursing social media, take a look at these: our Facebook page, our Twitter page, NURSOC education which is fab, surviving student nursing is great for some laughs, the UoM BNurs and Midwifery twitter and of course We Nurses!!

For more social media guidance please visit: the NMC, RCN and everynurse to keep yourself safe and professional!

Student Nurse Advocate

Advocating for patients, in my opinion, is one of our most privileged roles and one we should take very seriously. I have often found, our position as Student Nurses affords us a certain advantage when it comes to patient’s openness right from day 1. Because we are often very hands-on, we know our patients very intimately and they feel more able to open-up to us about smaller concerns they may not feel were important enough to raise with their doctor or consultant for example. This carries a responsibility for us to make sure we take all patient’s concerns seriously and act on/escalate anything that, using our theoretical knowledge, may be of importance to their care. This also takes a pinch of courage to have confidence in your instincts and “back yourself” as we say on the Rugby pitch.

Last week while assisting a patient with his wash (which is often a time when I learn the most about a patient) he told me he hadn’t slept well that evening as he had visited the bathroom over 10 times in the night. This patient was due for discharge in the coming days so this was concerning for me. As an elderly gentleman with hypertension, heart disease and other comorbidities, he was at risk of Falls and if he is going up and down to the bathroom so regularly, especially in the night, he may sustain a serious injury such as a fractured neck of femur. I looked through his drug kardex and found he was on very high doses of furosemide, a loop diuretic that is often prescribed to patients with Heart failure to prevent oedema.

I asked the patient if he was happy for me to discuss this with his doctors and a specialist continence nurse to see if something could be done to help either reduce this frequency or make provisions for his discharge so he isn’t at an increased falls risk, he agreed and I approached his doctor.

This encounter wasn’t entirely successful. When I proposed reducing his diuretics to the doctor, initially his response was “Do you want him to die of heart failure?” – in front of the patient…

Not exactly the response I was hoping for, but I explained my concerns from a Nursing point of view and emphasised I am aware that his furosemide was prescribed for a reason and it is entirely his decision, I just wanted to advocate my patient’s best interests.

This exchange I felt didn’t end on a particularly positive note, so later in the day I apologised to the doctor saying “I didn’t mean to question his treatment I just wouldn’t feel comfortable if I didn’t make you aware of his concerns to see if we could work together towards a solution”. The doctor was much more amicable and smiled and said he understood and would consider what could be done.

Not long after this, the same doctor stopped me and said he had written a letter to the patient’s GP to recommend reducing his diuretics in the community and observe his response. He felt changing his medications the day before discharge might impact on his fitness for discharge. He also suggested trialling Oxybutynin. When I recognised Oxybutynin as an anti-muscarinic (which would improve his feelings of urgency), his face lit up. I have a feeling, he may not have expected me to possess such knowledge.

So many speech bubbles but 1 shared goal – patient’s wellbeing

Only upon writing this have I realised just how many units of study went into this encounter; Communications, Anatomy and Physiology, Pharmacology, Applied Pharmacology, Nursing Therapeutics, Recovery focused care and Medicines Management all informed my actions in this case. Reflecting on this scenario I am really pleased with the outcomes we achieved. Not only was the gentleman’s GP made aware of our concerns and recommendations but I managed to speak to the Trust’s continence specialist nurse and get her recommendations for interim provisions to help the patient transition into community. I fed all this back to the patient who was visibly relieved and so grateful we had pursued his concerns and formulated an action plan he understood and would work for him.

Advocating for patients is a vital part of the Nursing role and we can see advocacy in the NMC code in various different guises (see 3.4, 4.1, 8.6, 8.7 & 9.3).

Top Tips for Your First Placement

 

There is only two weeks until the first year placements start!!! Not only has this made me super nostalgic (and panicky because I’m halfway through my degree now), but it gave me the idea to write down some top tips.

Be YOU. This may sound like the cheesiest advice ever, but it’s true. With every placement, I’ve started this year, I’ve been quiet and not myself at all for the first few weeks because I’m so nervous. But what I’ve (finally) learnt is that once I started acting like me, I felt so much more relaxed. Make jokes, smile, talk to your colleagues. The secret to making it through any shift, even when you’re not having a great day, is with the people you work with! PLUS, the more you act naturally on placement, the easier it will be to feel more and more like a proper nurse, not just some clown in a uniform.

Throw yourself into every opportunity (if you’re comfortable****). I made a habit of not saying no to any task that was handed to me, just so I could experience everything. Sure, I didn’t always want to walk down to the Pharmacy and ask (for the 8^th time that day) where our medication was , but it helped! I got to know the hospital, understand the breadth of the role that the pharmacy has, and take a little breather from the business of the ward. Even boring tasks help you learn something, even if all you’ve learnt is I’m not a mad fan of this!

****Sometimes, you aren’t ready. There are times when you will be asked to do something (like giving an injection) and you might not feel ready. That is OKAY! Talk to your mentor, learn the methods and take some baby steps. You get to decide when you’re ready!

Don’t beat yourself up for making mistakes. They happen all the time. We are learning and working! You’ll do things wrong sometimes and that is okay. Whoever is teaching you should walk you through it anyway.

Talk about your day! One of my favorite times of day whilst on placement is going home and getting it all off my chest. Since I live with non-nurses, I often filter out the gory bits (bless them) but it really helps to process the day and reflect.

Get your paperwork sorted out on time! Both of my first-year placements involved me panicking because I didn’t talk to my mentor about paperwork. I thought it would make me look pushy. It doesn’t. 99.99% of the time, your mentor might have just forgotten or they might have a plan of their own. Just talk to them! If issues arise from there, talk to your PEF and AA.

And finally- GOOD LUCK! This journey is hard and can be frustrating, but there will be so many days when it’s so so worth it.

If anyone fancies trying their hand at blogging their experiences with placement, why not give us an email, a Facebook message or a tweet? We’re always on the lookout for more student nurse’s and midwives!

An Interview with Ian Wilson – Mental Health Lecturer

Ian Wilson, Honourary Teaching Fellow in the Mental Health Field has given us an early christmas present in the form of this amazing, honest interview about his specialist field – Mental Health, specifically discussing his work in the community with dually diagnosed service users (those with mental health and substance misuse diagnoses). This is a truly insightful piece with some wonderful tips and advice for all fields of Nursing.

ENJOY!!…

 

What do you enjoy most about working in the community?

I enjoy the autonomy of community work. I enjoy being truly collaborative with my service users and colleagues. I enjoy the flexibility and responsiveness that community work offers workers and their clients. I enjoy the equalization of the ‘power balance’ between professionals and service users that community work offers.

What do you enjoy most about working with the university?

Regular contact with students is undoubtedly the most rewarding part of my university job. I welcome the enthusiasm, creativity, professionalism and dedication to mental health nursing that I see students frequently displaying. Because of this student contact I am reassured about the future of my profession and reassured about the future of mental health services.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing Mental Health Nurses today?

I believe that we MUST maintain and nurture our own professional identity as mental health nurses. We have a unique perspective and a unique therapeutic trust. Both of these things are a huge privilege. We must ensure that this is not diluted.

Even as Student Nurses we can sometimes neglect our own mental health, especially with dissertations looming, what advice would you give students struggling with university stress?

I manage my own stress through regular exercise. I also have a group of friends who I can trust. Some of them are nurses, most of them aren’t. I have different groups of friends for different aspects of my life; my ‘football’ friends; my ‘music’ friends; my ‘work’ friends; friends I’ve known for 40 years or more, friends who have only recently entered my life. I rely on them all for support and encouragement.

How has your role as a Mental health Nurse changed since you registered?

I commenced my career as an inpatient staff nurse (two years). I then moved into community mental health nursing and I’ve done that for 20 + years. During that time my roles have changed and my responsibilities have increased. However, my core values have changed surprisingly little. I would still recognize myself from 25 years ago!

What qualities make a great Mental Health Nurse?

Empathy, unconditional positive regard, honesty, therapeutic optimism, positivity, self-reflection, a genuine interest in other people’s lives, open mindedness, a sense of humour, resilience, resourcefulness, self-reliance.

What made you choose to work with those suffering from drug and alcohol misuse?

I have both personal and professional reasons for working with dually-diagnosed (both mental health & substance misuse) service users. Additionally, I find service users with ‘dual’ problems resourceful, resilient, insightful and challenging. This keeps me going!

What piece of advice would you give Mental Health Student Nurses today?

Take every opportunity that comes your way to promote non-stigmatising attitudes towards mental health service users. Promote acceptance and respect among your colleagues. Use evidence based practice wherever possible. Have confidence to stand up against poor practice whenever you encounter it. Always push to improve services and your own skills and knowledge as a nurse.

From your experience working with service users who smoke cannabis, have you seen a therapeutic effect from taking it as a method of self-medicating and not just for recreational use?

Yes. For instance, a man with bi-polar illness has been using cannabis to regulate his mood. He has been actively attempting to reduce his cannabis use but as soon as he starts to reduce, he experiences a relapse into distressing elevated mood. His answer to this currently is to attempt to grow his own cannabis, which, he hopes, will be high in cannabidiols (anti-psychotic and sedating) rather than high in THC (very psychosis inducing). He is proving to be partially successful. However, in my experience this is unusual. Most of the service users I’ve worked with for many years do not get a good therapeutic effect from cannabis. Quite the opposite in fact. For almost all service users with psychotic illnesses cannabis can be a disaster for their mental health prognosis.

What impact do you think there would be on mental health services if cannabis was to be decriminalised or legalised in the UK?

Taking cannabis misuse out of the legal system and into the healthcare system would enable those people who have problems with cannabis misuse to seek appropriate help and treatment. It would also remove it from the control of organized crime.

From your experience what role does excessive alcohol consumption play in the development of mental health disorders?

This is a complex and multi-dimensional issue. Demographically, 50% of people entering alcohol treatment services have a severe depressive illness. 20% of people have a psychotic disorder (Weaver et al 2003). Whether this is a consequence of drinking excessively, or whether drinking excessively is a causative factor in the development of illnesses is, of course, usually too complex to fully determine.

Legal Highs come in all sorts of forms and can be bought on the high street

With the rise of “legal highs” and previously uncommon substances of abuse (such as ketamine) in Greater Manchester, has their been a notable shift in conditions patients suffer with as the popular drugs of choice have changed?

I believe that there is now no doubt that many of the newer substances, such as synthetic cannabinoids and highly potent stimulants such as PMA and methadrone are potentially far more dangerous to both physical and mental health. Synthetic cannabinoids, especially, appear to be very dangerous and unpredictable. However, their use, among mental health service users and people in general seems to be increasing year by year.

If you could give child/adult field nurses a few key points to convey to patients they may encounter that they believe might be struggling with drug or alcohol abuse what would they be?

• Be honest but non-judgmental about peoples’ lifestyle choices
• Encourage service users to discuss issues of substance misuse in an open and honest manner
• Listen to what they tell you and find ways of reflecting back what they’ve said
• Express empathy about their situation in relation to substance misuse. Be especially empathic about the difficulty their substance misuse is causing them and how it may be preventing them to achieve their goals
• Seek permission to offer information which is neutral, up-to-date, and presented in an accessible form. Check out carefully what they make of this information
• If they don’t want to change their current patterns of substance misuse, carry on discussing the issue in an open and honest manner, avoid arguing or persuading; offer harm reduction tips
• Keep the door open to possible intervention in the future