1. Student contribution from Lothian

Student Placements - Placement Stories

I have worked in many care homes and was a carer in a home before I went into nursing. I enjoyed the work in care homes and this is what prompted me to go into nursing.

 

I think in care homes we deal very holistically with the older person. I did my first placement as a student nurse in a care home and the experience was not as good as I had anticipated. I saw a real lack of care and was concerned that this was potentially student nurses first experience of nursing. The 12 hour shifts often seen in care homes are a killer. It is really difficult physically and mentally.

 

I really feel that the care home could be an ideal placement where you really learn to care. I really valued the opportunity to develop my observation skills – I was really able to spend time with the older person and work out over a period of time what might be wrong. I could really develop these skills so that in the acute sector when things like assessment and observation seem a lot more hurried you have already developed a really good baseline in this area and can apply it in the acute situation.

 

Also because you are with the residents over a continued period of time you are really able to develop your relationship building and communication skills which are crucial to nursing. You have a wonderful opportunity to really understand the older person from their perspective. I also enjoy being able to see the impact of your efforts right through to the end. Take wound care – you are able to see the improvement over a much longer period of time than you are able to in the acute sector.

Contributed by a student from Napier University. Reproduced by kind permission of Belinda Dewar who was previously the Nurse Consultant in the Care Commission.
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