Best books for nursing students

Hello readers!!
Today I'll be chatting about the nursing books i could not live without (Well... okay... I COULD live without them but it would be hard...). These books are my favourite by-the-way. I have so many i love but these are the main ones! ^   ^ Head down to your uni library if you are interested. I haven't linked them to Amazon or anything because almost every uni library will have these books. Do you really want to waste £130 of your student bursary on one book? That's what I thought... Just search your library catalogue. It saves pennies. So, here we go. In no paticular order...


The Royal Marsden of Clinical Nursing Procedures
Such an amazing book but SO heavy -_-... This is the most important book of your training though, whcih regards to learning clinical procedures anyway. This has pretty much EVERY nursing procedure but it's great to learn from because its set out well, with great diagrams and in an easy-to-read way. Probably not a good idea to buy this or some of the other books mentioned in this post as many, if not all of these are very expensive (some over £100...) Just head down to your university library. More often your uni library will have withdrawn books and you will be able to take them home for free. Anyway, I love this book so get one if you can!

 
British National Formulary
This book is a must for when you are on the wards! It simply lists all drugs and their indications, side effects etc. I believe they are released a couple times every year (March and Sept, I think) which is great because it means they are always up-to-date. Plus, they are always such pretty colours!! Anyway, don't panic if you don't have one, every ward has at least three or four. You don't have to pay Amazon prices either. Just run down to your pharmacy dept. and ask if they have any they are chucking out. (They always want up-to-date ones obviously). So, get your hands on one!! 

Gray's Anatomy
Every nurse needs to have some knowledge about A&P and this book is amazing! It's pretty heavy for the layman mentally and physically (It'a a BIG book...) but it's a must for any student of biology or healthcare.





  


  
Principles of Anatomy & Physiology
This book is actually available as two separate volumes and is actually one of the best A&P books I've read. It covers almost everything you need to know as a student nurse and is perfect for assignments. This book was actually recommended by the A&P lecturers and I found so many copies in the library. Only problem was that I would have to stay in the stacks and flick through the book to make sure I had the right volume with the right topics in before taking it out! Other than that, highly recommended!


                                         

The Incredibily Easy! Series
I LOVE this series because, being a first year, some aspects of the course and of your training are quite daunting. This series helps to clarify some of the harder topics. Each chapter starts with the very basics and gradually delves into the deeper and more analytical stuff. The text is broken up into smaller paragraphs, making it easy to read. And text is also accompanied by cartoon pictures which is quite cool. There are quite a lot of books in this series and so far I've only read about three/four but I hope to read them all eventually! There are books on: Wound care, critical care, clinical skills, fundamentals of care, mental health, nursing pharmacology, assessment, nutrition, paediatrics and many more! Check them out!  


Nursing Calculations
Although this is a book of little pages but is very easy to get through. It simply comprises of a lot of drug calculations and is set out like a maths textbook. But it starts with the easy stuff and gradually gets to the more difficult calculations. It's easy to carry around, weighs practically nothing and the answers are at the back which helps you to check what ones you got right or wrong... Anyway, this is a MUST! I love it!





                               
The Student Nurse Handbook
This was one of the very first books that I took out at the library and it's brilliant!! It helps students to gain an insight into nursing before going on their first placement and it really did help me a lot. It gave me insight regarding what to expect once I stepped on the wards. I actually kept this in my bag during lectures in case I had a spare minute to have a read and I'd also read it on the bus. It's easy to carry around and cover a multitude of topics. I also used this for my interprofessional module!! Like gold dust!!




Well, I suppose that covers it! I hope you have found this post useful! I've been under a lot of stress lately what with so many assignments and trying to arrange my next clinical placement (which is actually with a district nurse, buzzing! lol) I hope you are well and I hope you have time to research into these books because I love them and have found them so beneficial!
Take care!

Emily

Clinical Skills: Eye care

hi guys! this is the second clinical skills post that i'm doing!! yey!! Today we had our first lecture on IPL which is 'Inter-professional learning'. I'll get to that stuff a bit later on...
For now though I'm gonna explain Eye care! Enjoy!!

Eye Care

For this you will need:

A sterile galley pot, gloves and apron, sterile towel, sterile normal saline solution, sterile low-linting gauze swabs, artificial tears or eye ointment.

How to do it

* Assemble the equipment at the patients bedside. Open the sterile towel and open all sterile equipment on to this.
* Pour a small amount of saline solution into the galley pot. Open the sterile gauze using an aseptic technique and place on the sterile towel.
* Wash your hands thoroughly, put gloves and an apron on and inform the patient of what you would like to do in order to gain consent, even if the patient is comatose or unresponsive.
* To remove secretions or crusts adhering to the eyelids and eyelashes, first soak gauze in sterile normal saline solution. Then gently wipe the patients eye with the moistened gauze, working from the inner canthus to the outer canthus to prevent debris and fluid from entering the nasolacrimal (tear) duct.
* After cleaning the eyes, instil artificial tears or apply eye ointment, as prescribed, to keep them moist.
* After giving eye care, dispose of the galley pot, apron and gloves. Use new equipment for each care episode.

Documenting eye care
* Record the time and type of eye care in your notes.
* If applicable, record administration of eye drops or ointment in the patient’s medication chart.
* Document unusual crusting or excessive or coloured drainage and report findings as appropriate

Hope you enjoyed it!

Emily

Clinical Skills: Hand Hygiene

I guess this is the very first post I'll be doing on clinical skills!! yey! ^ ^
In this post I'll be explaining Hand hygiene and why it is important in the clinical environment and the best methods for hand washing.
It might sound a bit picky, thinking that we don't know how to wash our hands. But in a clinical environment, bacteria is quickly spread and this can mean outbreaks of MRSA and Clostridium Difficile (C-diff). Not good as both of these infections can be life-threatening. Hospitals are places that should aid patient recovery, not accelerate their death.
So, hand hygiene is very important! Therefore, I'll be discussing this with you in this post!

Hand Hygiene
* You should wash your hands before and after giving patient care or having contact with contaminated objects, even if you have worn gloves.
* You should make sure that you remove rings and jewellery as local policy allows, because they harbour dirt and skin microorganisms. Remove your watch - preferably you can wear a fob watch.
* Clothing should not be worn below the elbow when working in clinical environments.
* Fake nails and nail polish should not be worn as they have the potential to harbour microorganisms. Check your local policy.

Hand washing technique
* Wet your hands and wrists with warm water, and then apply soap from a dispenser. Avoid using bar soap to prevent cross-contamination. Hold your hands below elbow level to prevent water from running up your arms and back down, thus contaminating clean areas.
* Work up a lather by rubbing your hands together for about 10 seconds. Soap and water reduce surface tensions and this, aided by friction, loosens surface mircooragnisms, which wash away in the lather.
* Pay attention to under your fingernails and around the cuticles and also to your thumbs, palms, knuckles, and sides of your fingers and hands. Microorganisms can thrive in these overlooked areas.
* If you do not remove your wedding ring, move it up and down to get underneath it.
* Avoid splashing water on yourself or the floor because microorganisms spread more easily on these surfaces.
* Avoid touching the sink or taps because they are considered contaminated.

Rinsing and drying your hands
* Rinse hands and wrists well because running water flushes soil, soap or detergent, and microorganisms away.
* Pat hands dry with a paper towel.
* Turn off the taps by gripping them with a dry paper towel to avoid contaminating your hands.
* Dispose of the paper towels in the waste bin using a foot pedal to open the bin.

Other tips
* Use alcohol hand gel as well but just remember that they should be used up to 3 times before you should wash again. Also alcohol gels are insufficient to kill Clostridium Difficile, so remember to wash your hands after caring for patients with this infection.
* You must always allow time for the alcohol gel to dry as it is the drying of the alcohol that reduces the bacterial count.
*Ideally you should wash your hands at the beginning of your shift, before and after direct and indirect patient contact, before and after performing any body functions (E.G blowing your nose or using the toilet); beofre preparing or serving food, before administering medications; after removing gloves or personal protective equipment and after completing your shift.


So, that's all there is to it!! Similarly to the A&P bit I'm doing, I'll be continually updating Clinical Skills!

'Clinical Skills Made Incredibly Easy!' By Mhairi Hastings - This is the book that I regularly use to help me with clinical skills and I really do suggest you buy it or at least check your local/university library for it! It's actually getting me through clinical skills lectures!!

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this post! It's actually kinda hard to catch up on these blog posts that I've missed! There's so much information in one weeks worth of lectures, it's UNREAL!!
Ttyl,

Emily