It's NOT a dog-eat-dog world!

As a newbie in the blogging world, I've been working hard to connect with other bloggers, student nurses, registered nurses and prospective nurses to try and build a bit of a reputation for myself. Whilst the outcome of this has been mostly positive, I have found on a few occasions that there seems to be a bit of an "every man for himself" attitude. Honestly I found this really surprising.
The feeling that I got was that these people don't want to share their secrets to succeeding, and with such a shortage of nurses here in the UK, I really cant believe that there are students and nurses that are so unwilling to help others to further themselves. Surely asking questions and showing initiative is a good thing?! We want to learn. We want to make something of ourselves, and most of all, we want to help others..the point that seems to be going amiss here.
When working as a carer, aside from taking care of my residents, one of my favourite things was helping new staff. I loved the idea that I was setting a good example for them by working to the best possible standard I could. I would take them around with me, show them, and then ask them to do it the next time so that they could concrete their own learning. I would even go home and put together fact sheets that I knew would be helpful for them getting to know our residents conditions/illness'. I never once thought "Oh my goodness, what if they end up being a better carer than me?" Quite frankly, I would have welcomed it. We are all on a path where education is never ending, its one of the things that draws me to this line of work and I would much rather give others a hand up than find myself complaining down the line that they're not following best practice because they haven't been taught correctly.
When I qualify as a nurse, I know that I will need experience before becoming an Advanced Nurse Practitioner, and if this ends up being in a hospital setting, I would 100% like to be a mentor.
Knowledge is power, and as nurses, we've all got the power to make a difference. Make the most of your ability to make an impact on providing amazing healthcare. Its priceless.

If you like my content, please like, comment and share so that others can take a look at my ramblings :)

For regular updates, check out my Instagram @zoe.m.porter

Preparing for Your First Year as a Student Nurse

It's that time of the year where everyone is starting to receive offers for University and everything is suddenly becoming real..and a little bit scary..
I've seen a lot of posts asking what are the essentials as a first year student nurse so I've compiled a list of things that I couldn't have managed without so far this year.

If you're anything like me, you'll be in your element as far as stationary is concerned, you'll need post-its, highlighters, permanent markers, pens, pencils, you name it, you'll need it at some point. I LOVE the slim-line BIC highlighters, easy to hold as they're not the usual chunky highlighter and they fit nicely into your pencil case or tunic pocket. Multi-coloured biros are advisable for when you're on placement as you'll need to write predominantly in black but you'll find you need red for certain things and having one pen is so much more convenient than swapping back and forth. You'll also need notebooks..and lots of! I initially used one notebook for all of my modules and although everything was in one place, it became confusing very quickly, so this semester I'm taking a new approach and have bought A5 notebooks, one for each module. I've also bought notebooks for medications that I've administered and illnesses, procedures and medical terms so that I can easily revise what I've learned either at University or out on placement.

There's a bit of a misguided preconception that you need to buy a lot of textbooks, and while it can be useful, bear in mind that when referencing, unless its anatomy and physiology, it should be dated within the last 10 years, sometimes 5 years. I was lucky as I had some friends who are already nurses and were happy to donate their old books to me, but if you're purchasing them, I would say really the only books you NEED are A&P. I love the Ross and Wilson textbook, its informative without being too confusing and I also bought the accompanying workbook which has lots of tasks to help you learn. I bought both of these from EBay, quite reasonably priced.

Additionally, going into the second semester, I have recently bought a drugs calculations workbook to get a head start. The 'Calculation Skills for Nurses' by Claire Boyd is brilliant as it really starts with the basics and gradually builds you up to where you need to be in simple, easy to follow steps.

The last book you definitely do need is a decent planner. I'm fairly well organised in general with calendars at home and notes in my phone, but I bought this planner ready for starting in September and I'd be lost without it. Along with standard, regular lectures, we also have adhoc skills sessions, and then placements and exams, module deadlines etc. and I found this planner so useful for keeping everything in check. You can find these over at www.thehappyplannercompany.com

Following on from the clinical skills sessions, we were advised to buy a sphygmomanometer and stethoscope to practice manual blood pressures, you can pick these up really cheap on Amazon or EBay. I had my sphyg from www.valuemed.co.uk and although I did originally have a stethoscope from EBay, I couldn't help but indulge in a Littmann Classic as an early Christmas present to myself. I wouldn't say this is necessary as you wont ever take it into placement, however, my end goal is to be an Advanced Nurse Practitioner, in which case I would need my own stethoscope daily so I used this as justification for spending too much money on myself. I went for the Plum and it is beeeautiful!

Finally, necessities for placement. A decent pair of shoes! Must cover your foot so no dolly shoes or crocs. I have the Skechers Go Step with Goga Mat technology (SUPER springy..like walking on a cloud!) Admittedly my shoes are not leather, but I coat them regularly with waterproof spray so that I can clean them easily and prevent any fluids leaking their way through. I already mentioned the multi-coloured pen, and yet another notebook! One that fits in your pocket so that you can keep it on you. I tried the small ring bound ones but found that they were damaged quite easily so I bought one that was a bit sturdier, even though it is a little bigger. You will also need a fob watch and maybe a whiteboard marker, although some wards have these already. From my experience, scissors aren't needed as my Trust provides disposable scissors. And finally, get yourself a decent sized, closed lid water bottle. Whether its sitting through 3 hour lectures at University, or working a 12 hour shift on the ward, this has been a lifesaver for me. We may be looking after people but its easy to forget to look after ourselves. Stay hydrated guys!!

If I think of anything that I may have missed, I will post an update over on my Instagram page @zoe.m.porter You can also find regular updates of my studies and the odd inspirational quote over there so give me a follow!

If you want to find out about my charity skydive, follow the link here >> http://zoemporter.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/united-against-dementia.html any sponsors will be greatly appreciated, the link is at the bottom of the blog.

United Against Dementia

It's strange to think that before working in care in 2012, I had never come into contact with anyone that had Dementia. Of course I probably had but I had been oblivious to it. It wasn't ever something that I'd given a lot of thought to, I knew that it existed and I knew that it was a difficult disease to live with. When I started my job as a carer, this was one of the things that immediately hit me in the face like a ton of bricks. Day in, day out, I was caring for people with different types of Dementia and I have to say, they were by far my favourite patients. I've come into contact with carers, families and friends over the years that sort of view Dementia as a disease that basically writes a person off..that they're no longer the person that they once were..and while the latter is true to an extent, that person is by no means "gone". Working in the care home led me to meeting some of the loveliest residents, they may have been in their 80s physically, but in their minds they were 20 and would tell me stories of the war and their childhoods and their families and I loved this aspect of my job. I found it fascinating. I was moved to tears more times than I care to admit by the wonderful and wholesome lives that these people had led, and in their minds they were still living them, which honestly kind of warms the soul.

After having my daughter in 2015, my Grandad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. And for the first time I experienced what those other families had experienced. My Grandad was slipping away from us and it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to witness, but at the same time..he was still my Grandad..he would still make silly jokes, and dance down the corridors without his walking sticks, giving us all mini heart attacks, and in his final days in the hospital, he still took my hand, and though he may not have remembered my name, he knew me..his heart knew mine and that's all that mattered.

During the weeks leading up to my Grandad's passing, he was in and out of hospital for various reasons, and I was lucky enough to have people that I knew and loved taking care of him, both nurses at the hospitals and carers in the home he was in. This gave us as a family a little reassurance and I will always be grateful to those people for all they did for him.

Now I would like to do my part for the Alzheimer's Society, and in memory of my beloved Grandad, I will be taking part in One Giant Leap on May 27th 2018. This means I will be doing a skydive, something that excites and terrifies me simultaneously while raising money for the Alzheimer's Society. The date of One Giant Leap also falls within the same week as the anniversary of my Grandad's death which makes this event all the more special to me. He is part of the reason I finally decided to become a nurse and now I'm determined to do this for him.

If you would like to sponsor me, no matter how big or small, please follow the link here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/zoe-porter8

I will be so grateful for any support in reaching and hopefully exceeding my fundraising target.

Please follow me on Instagram for regular updates on my nursing journey: @zoe.m.porter

Farewell 2017!

With 2018 fast approaching, social media will inevitably start to become flooded with New Years resolutions including the obligatory and well-intended "New Year, New Me" posts that generally last through January before everyone then indulges at Valentines and it's all downhill from there!

You can probably guess that I'm not one for making resolutions, I like to reflect on the past year, evaluate what went well, what I achieved, what I didn't achieve and how I can improve. With this in mind, 2017 has been a bit of a rollercoaster year. It started well with me being in a relationship, I started a new job, was half way through my Access course at college and had been accepted into University. All good things. As you know, life is never plain sailing and as far as the relationship goes, this came to quite a sad end in August.

I completed my Access course with mostly distinctions which also qualified me for a scholarship! Bonus! I then began University in September this year. Its tough going but I know it will be worth all the blood, sweat and tears in the long run.

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you will have remembered my post about my daughters father, who had some pretty terrible news about his battle with cancer. For now, this seems to be stable and he's doing well which is something to be thankful for, for sure. (See my blog here - http://zoemporter.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/standing-up-to-cancer.html)

This leads me onto the things that I am thankful for from 2017.


1. My beautiful daughter - she is learning and growing every single day and becoming a lovely little human with such an outgoing character, I couldn't be more proud. She's also a bit of a chatterbox (no idea where she gets this from!)

2. My family - for supporting me through college and my crazy ideas that pop up now and then. My mom in particular has been an absolute godsend, helping me with childcare. Without her I wouldn't be able to pursue my dream and build a better life for Elsie. I'm also really thankful for my dad. With no permanent male role model, he continues to make the effort with Elsie, even when she refuses to show any affection towards him. Haha. We also welcomed to the world my beautiful niece, Mollie, who is a little miracle rainbow baby who could not be more perfect! I'm so proud of my sister and her partner, they're wonderful parents.

3. My friends - Old and new. Inevitably as we grow up and start our own families it becomes difficult to keep in touch with people, my friends have been so supportive and understanding and even though I've not seen them nearly as much as I'd like, I'm so thankful for their friendship. This also goes for my new friends that I've made through University. For all the constant support through assignments, placements and the memes to keep us laughing even though we're all at our wits end already!

4. My health - Its no secret that I'm slowly falling apart, but if this year has shown me anything, its that I'm in pretty good condition. I don't have anything major to complain about and for this I'm extremely thankful.

There are plenty of other things that I'm grateful for, I could probably write a book, but for now I will leave it here, and for 2018, I am going to make sure I focus on my studies, improving my health where possible, and making more time for friends. I also lacked on my charity work this year, so I've already got a few plans lined up for the coming year that both myself and Elsie will be taking part in. Watch this space for details!

Follow me on Instagram for more regular updates - @zoe.m.porter 

If you like my content, please like, comment and share! And thank you for your continued support of my little blog through the last year! ♡

My First Experience on Placement

Yesterday was the last day of my first block of placements, I'm not going to be back now until Feb, but have got an exam, assignments and University to deal with in the meantime.

I wanted to just write briefly about the last 6 weeks. As you know, I am a first year student in Adult Nursing and I'm placed on a Vascular and General Surgery ward. When I received the placement I was excited but not really sure what to expect, and my goodness I was not prepared! We deal with everything from abdominal pain to leg amputations and everything in between. It seems like there isn't really much on this ward that I wont get to witness. I actually really like this aspect because it is giving me more exposure and increasing my knowledge while still having the opportunities to really get down to business with the Vascular Specialist side of things.

So far I have done all of the usual nurse-type activities such as observations: Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Saturations, Temperature, Respirations and pain scores. I've also removed cannulas, changed dressings, assisted with moving and handling, admitted patients, discharged patients, administered medications (including subcut injections) etc and assisted with more complex dressings such as Vac dressings. Anyone who follows me on Snapchat will have seen my little video blog about this experience! This week I accompanied one of our Vascular Specialists down to the Outpatient Clinic where we saw patients that had been referred from elsewhere which was a really interesting experience.

Over the last few weeks I have been able to work with people in various roles including Novice, CSW, Staff Nurse, Sister, Specialist, OT, Dr, Jr Dr, PA and a few others and to my surprise everyone has been so welcoming. This is one of the things I was really nervous about but its been lovely to be on the ward.

With yesterday being my last day, I was determined to make it a positive experience, and although the day started off a little rocky, I made the decision to brush it off and make the most of the afternoon. The patients I was taking care of made my last day an absolute pleasure, they kept me laughing and were so friendly, regardless of their situations and the reasons they were there. And one lovely gentleman ended the day by singing to us and it nearly brought me to tears as it reminded me so much of when my granddad used to sing. It was the perfect ending to such an eye opening and enjoyable placement.

Now its time to relax, get the last few things ready for Christmas and start preparing for an exam in Jan!

Merry Christmas to you all and I hope anyone that's been on placement for the first time has enjoyed it as much as I have!

Follow me on Instagram for more regular updates - @zoe.m.porter 
If you like my content, please like, comment and share! And thank you for your continued support of my little blog through the last year! ♡

Standing Up To Cancer

Not a lot of people know about the history with my daughter’s father, in fact not a lot of people even know who he is. I’ve never mentioned him really, I’ve always tried to keep our relationship very private. We were friends long before we ever dated, my Mom actually worked for his Dad’s company that he now also runs with his Sister. Obviously being more than friends didn’t work out for us, and that’s okay because we still got our beautiful little Elsie out of it. Our relationship hasn’t always run smoothly, for whatever reasons, but we’re now on the right path and finally sorting things out so that Elsie can get to know her Dad and her younger brother.

What I really wanted to talk about though is Peters journey over the last 2 and a half (ish) years. I’ve never shared this information with anyone other than close family and friends as I’ve always felt it’s not my business to share, but Peter has decided that he wants to talk about it and has made a YouTube Channel that I wanted to share with you all. Whether you take a look and gain some awareness, or whether you know someone that might benefit from the videos, they’re worth checking out.

To cut a very long story short, Peter has Stage 4 Melanoma which started off as a small mole and has metastasised over the last 2 years. I know that he’s had a really rough time with hospitalisations and operations and obviously dealing with the news in the first instance, but it’s also been really hard on everyone around him, his girlfriend, his family and my family. It’s something we’ve all had to try and process in our own ways and to be honest, I’m really glad that he’s decided to talk about it now. I think the message that he’s giving out in his videos is really positive and could really help other people, even if it’s helping peoples families to understand what that person is going through. So without further ado..this is his story so far and please follow the link below to his YouTube Channel and all the other videos.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMKz8TQUHiwqRuynniegN-Q/videos

Is Life A Case Of Mind Over Matter?

Several times this year, I have sat down and started to write a blog, but found myself completely lost for words. At this point, I realise that may be down to not really being able to organise my thoughts properly. Over the last year, there have been a lot of changes, and I've found myself in situations that far exceeded my comfort zone. I try to convince myself every day that life is a case of mind over matter, that difficult situations don't faze me. I try to be strong and independent and to just take life for what it is; the problem with this, is that being strong is exhausting. So this is a post, that does not hide that I have felt weak, that I have secretly cried for hours, and am finally being honest with myself.

This time last year, I was preparing to take part in a charity fundraiser for Alzheimer's Society in memory of my lovely Grandad, this alone is something that has never left me, and I don't think it ever will. To lose such an iconic member of the family completely shattered me and thinking about it brings me to tears. In his memory, I vowed that I would finally make a start on following my dream of helping others and so I started college studying the Access to HE course. I did not know, that this would be one of the most difficult things I would ever put myself through. The intensity of the course, the fear of failure and the anxiety of having to make a whole bunch of new friends at the age of 26 completely threw me. I struggled to dedicate time to my coursework, and found it immensely hard forming bonds with my classmates. I thought I had found one person I could connect with, but as always, my ability to tolerate rudeness lacked somewhat and I found myself facing this journey alone. This was until I was thrust into a partnership with a person I never thought I would get on with, and to my surprise I realised that that was one of the best things that could have happened because I no longer felt alone. I was honest, I told her about my insecurities, and she helped me to see that I was worrying over nothing. She didn't mind when I sat by her for the rest of the year, we helped each other with assignments and she showed me the compassion that I needed. I will always be grateful for this beautiful, strong woman that had come into my life, we dragged each other through the end of the course and are now both heading off to bigger and better things!

In the middle of my course, I decided that I wanted to start earning money so I got myself a part time job. I wanted to be able to provide for my daughter, to feel a sense of satisfaction knowing that I could give her the kind of life that I wanted to, but this was not an easy feat. I had to rely on my mom to babysit as I couldn't afford to pay for extra days at nursery and this put a strain on our relationship that I'm really not comfortable with. To try and ease the situation, I had to compromise with my Managers and with their understanding, was able to come to a reasonable conclusion. I know that in most lines of work, I would not have been treated with the same level of empathy and I'm extremely lucky. On the topic of work, I realise that I put one manager in an awkward situation when life got on top of me and I spent 20 minutes crying my eyes out, unable to talk without sounding like a quivering mess. For this, I apologise..although it is rather funny now.

Without divulging too much information that isn't mine to share, one of the other huge dilemmas that has hit me right where it hurts this year is to do with my daughters father. He has been ill for quite some time now, and though we have not had a smooth relationship, it has always lay heavy on my heart. During the past 6 months alone, he has been extremely ill, with a few hospitalisations and also the fear that we were losing him at one point. This hasn't been easy for anyone, his family and my family and I know that I have hurt people because of this. My own relationship suffered immensely, because the way that I felt was not comprehendible, and I think to be honest, that's okay. Its a difficult situation and I'm not sure, as a person on the outside looking in, if I would be able to understand it all either. The illness has put a lot of pressure on me to resolve our issues for my daughters sake and I find my thoughts contradicting themselves daily.

As mentioned above, the relationship that I was in during the last year suffered greatly, and though I am not prepared to disclose exactly what happened, for both of our sakes, it saddens me to say that things recently came to an end.

I cant help but think that I have changed a lot, my focus and goals have changed but my priority always has and always will be my daughter, and I have to be strong in order to give her a good and stable life. I wanted to write this blog so that I can start the next 12 months with a clear and open mind as I head into University and begin to build myself back up to the confident, happy person that I know I am.