From placements to life outside of studies, my experience so far has been great. Every year just gets better and better!
My experience so far has been great. Every year just gets better and better!
Placements are definitely one of the best parts of studying Nursing. The range of experiences you get are very diverse. For example, you have the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, the Children's Hospital and the Queen Elizabeth (QE) Hospital as your potential placement providers and all really close by. I've had six placements so far over my two years here, and they've all been very, very different. I think that is such a unique opportunity and it has been really helpful to work out where I want to work in the future.
A placement in particular that stood out has to be when I was on the Liver Transplant ward at the QE. I got to watch a liver transplant surgery which was an amazing experience. The surgery was actually on a patient I had known for a while, who had been on the waiting list for a long time so they were finally getting their transplant. Just seeing the difference that made to their life was amazing. You develop connections with your patients and then when you see them having something that is so life changing and you are there to witness it, it is just a great experience.
Another great thing about nursing is that there are just so many routes for you to progress into and if you want to change fields or move to another country even, you can! The career is very versatile.
For me, having a fulfilling job and job satisfaction is so important. But that doesn’t mean that Nursing is always good – it’s a hard job! The shifts and days on placements are very long and you have a lot of responsibility which I think is very different to other university courses. Some of my friends finish around 5pm and then they are able to go out and have that free time but for us, it is tough trying to balance a social life as well as placement and your studies. This been said, the job is just so fulfilling. You're making such a difference to those that need you and even if you are having a rubbish day but then one patient that says, “thank you” to you at the end of the day, that makes your whole 12-and-a-half-hour shift worth it!
When I do have free time, I enjoying running and find it is a good way to clear my head especially after an intense day on placement. I am also part of Christian Union society, so we meet once or twice a week. I'm also part of the Medical Society, MedSoc, committee, to run the nursing society called, NurseSoc. This sits under MedSoc as one of the 50 plus different societies that fall under it. Some of my closest friends I have made have been through being part of MedSoc. Some of them don’t study nursing, they actually study medicine and pharmacy so it’s a great way to meet people from all different healthcare courses.
Hi, my name is Katherine and I study Adult Nursing at the University of Birmingham.
