Another week has just FLOWN by, and I’m now counting down the days until we go out into placement. You can read my week 5 update here.
Monday was a mixed day. In the morning we had a session all about using the electronic library resources and referencing – all really useful stuff for helping with our essay. It was amazing to find out just how much stuff there was for us to access in the library, from textbooks to midwifery journals. After lunch, we had a session based around placements – how to access placement information, how to use our ongoing achievement record (OAR) and a little bit about mentors.
On Tuesday we went along to our final clinical skills theory session – can’t believe how much we have covered over the last 6 weeks! Todays session was all about bladder and bowel care, both during labour and postnatally. We did a little about the placenta too, and there were some amazing pictures to look at. After lunch we had a talk from a dietician, all about healthy eating for pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Wednesday was a study day, and I didn’t have a bank shift to work this week, so I made a start on some essay planning. Our essay is a piece of reflective writing based around our academic and clinical strengths and weaknesses.
We were back to uni on Thursday for a day on drug administration. We started with a presentation about how drugs work in the body, before moving on to a practical session where we had some fake arms to practice subcutaneous and intramuscular injections on. The afternoon was split into drug calculations (NOT my favourite session, although not as bad as I had feared) and oral drug admin. This took the form of a practical OSCE, so we had a chance to practice what this would be like should we get it in our real OSCE.
Friday was our final clinical skills session – postnatal day. There were various stations set up throughout the day, giving us the chance to practice several things. We started with a recap of venepuncture and catheterisation, followed by postnatal documentation relating to mum and baby checks. After lunch we had neonatal resuscitation (terrifying) and a session on the newborn blood spot test.
I have spent the weekend working on my reflective essay, and I feel like I have really got somewhere with that now. I have sent some of it off to my tutor for feedback, so fingers crossed that comes back with a positive reply! I can’t wait for next week – there are heaps of exciting things going on, including my observation day at the hospital and UNIFORMS!
