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 More often your uni library will have withdrawn books and you will be able to take them home for free.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

Patient Experiences & Expectations

Good afternoon readers!
I hope you are well (: I know i've been posting quite a lot but I want to make up for all the time that I was absent! Today I'll be talking about the expectations that patients will have of nurses and of their care and how we as health care professionals can improve the patients overall hospital/care experience! Enjoy!

Patient experiences and expectations
*Expect good standard of care from health care professionals
*Good communication between staff
*respect religious views i.e. same sex care
*Feel safe and be heard
*To be treated with respect and dignity

Health care professionals' expectations
*Correct resources to enable effective nursing
*To be treated with respect and acknowledgement
*Not be abused
*To be respected by other staff
*To be paid

Gaps between Health care professional and patients
*Shortage of staff
*Poor management or teamwork
*Lack of training, communication and experience
*Financial constraints
*Cultural differences
*Lack of equipment

Reducing gaps
*Improve staffing levels and education
*Educate patients
*Make patients more proactive in their care
*Reduce paperwork?
*Increase health promotion
*Increase awareness of risks of treatments
*Decrease use of jargon

Main focus of complaints
-Attitude of staff
-Communication failures
-Poor standards

Rights of patients
-To have complaint dealt with efficiently and properly investigated
-To be made ware of the outcomes of the investigation
-To take complaint to independent ombudsman if not completely satisfied
-To receive compensation if harmed
-Make a claim for judicial review if directly affected by unlawful act

How can health care professional engage effectively with patients to improve handling of complaints and improve quality of care delivery?
-Attend to complaint
-Listening and noting
-Checking needs regularly
-Knowledge and understanding
-Communicating
-Patient needs to be kept informed
-Try to resolve internally and not going to the media
-Know your boundaries as a student
-Understand patient expectations and get to know them when admitted
-Be open minded
-Support
-Explain complaint procedure
-Patient understands his/her right and responsibilities
-Have an awareness of advocacy services

Responding to complaints
-Apologise
-Ensure that it won’t happen again
-Decide how serious the issue is and how likely it is to reoccur
-What can be learnt?

Why feedback is important…
*Tells you what is working Helps you to identify the problems and risks and prevent them from worsening
*Highlight opportunities for staff development

Brief introduction to NICE
*An organisation set up in 1999
*Decides which new drugs and treatments should be available on the NHS (I'll probably discuss this is more detail in a later post so keep your eyes peeled!)

Above all...

Think about how your behaviour contributes to the patients overall experience

And that's it!!! I hope you have enjoyed this post! I'll try to post as much as possible. Time is very limited for me at the moment but I will do everything I can to give a weekly update AT LEAST!! (: Enjoy your day!

Emily

Holistic Nursing

Hello ^ ^
Long time no see (; LOL!
Tonight I'll be talking about holistic nursing.

What is holistic nursing?
• Relationship-centred care
• Recognising body-mind-emotion-spirit-environment principles in daily life and in clinical practice
• Desire to do good – not performed for the sake of the law or because of duty
• Paying attention to all aspects of an individual – the physical, social, mental and emotional person
• Communicating verbally and non-verbally

The practice process is based on six main principles...
• Assessing
• Diagnosing
• Identifying outcomes
• Planning care
• Implementing plan of care
• Evaluating

The caring process involves...
• Recognising the totality of the human being – the interconnectedness of the body, mind, spirit and emotion
• Focusing on how the individual is cognitively perceiving and emotionally dealing with the illness
• Focusing on effect on persons family, social relationships and economic resources
• Focusing on care interventions that promote healing, peace and comfort

Holistic Assessments
• Include physical, mental, emotional, cultural, sexual, spiritual and transpersonal and energy field assessments
• Energy field assessments are based on the concept that all beings are composed of energy and congestion of this energy will create disharmony and disease
• Spiritual assessments – religious beliefs and a person’s purpose in life. Ask questions about their sense of peace, what brings them joy, strength and hope.
• First ask an individual: “What do you think is happening/going on with you?” And then: “What do you think would help?”
• Help the person to identify risk factors such as lifestyle, habits, beliefs, values, family or personal history
• Focus on individual’s goals rather than the nurses
• Therapeutic plans of care respect person experience and uniqueness of each healing journey
• Holistic nurses respect that outcomes may not be expected as they may evolve differently


I know some of my posts seem quite short and to the point, without much detail but I promise that as the year progresses I will continuously add detail as I go along! You'll pretty much be able to see my knowledge grow over the years, I promise ^^
Oh, also I did a little research earlier. It might sound silly but I actually did not know what the different was between diagnosis and prognosis. If you didn't know here you go:

Diagnosis: what illness or injury a patient has.

Prognosis: the outlook/forecast/decision of how to TREAT the diagnosis. Good prognosis = you are likely to recover. Poor prognosis = you are not likely to recover.

Bye!!

Emily

Reflection, Record keeping, Confidentiality and Drug Calculations

Hi guys!
Today I'll be covering four topics in this one post. Enjoy!

Reflection
Reflection is when you think about an aspect of your professional development as a student nurse. It is considered as very important to your learning and experience. It helps nurses to evaluate their own practice and performance. Bengtsson (1998) suggested that nurses need to learn by these experiences and, by doing so, would become more competent and therefore more able to teach others. Callister (1993) sees reflection on clinical events as an expansion of cognitive learning and suggests that the use of professional journals to record events, and reactions to these events, shapes the future of care delivery. This certainly shows that reflection is vital to a students learning and understanding.
Reflection involves meditating about the experiences of a day in practice, analysing and evaluating decisions made, using self-assessment to improve continually, therefore focusing on lessons learned whilst maintaining objectivity.
This can be done through a SWOT analysis. You may have heard of this before... Using SWOT analysis helps us to consider our possible strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
We can also use Gibbs Reflective Cycle. (See Image)


Potential barriers to reflection
*Stress
*Lack of honesty
*Time
*Insecurity
*Lack of/too much confidence
*Fear
*Bad/lack of feedback
*Stubborn/narrowmindedness
*Arrogance

So, overall, reflection must be done on a regular basis to be beneficial to nurses. And while reflection is fairly commonplace, it's also a good idea to keep checking this against currently theory and acceptable practice.

Record keeping
In nursing, record keeping is very important as it must reflect high standards of clinical care and health care records must keep continuity of care and accurate account of treatment. Records are therefore used as a vehicle for communication between other health care professionals.
What Health Care Records include
*Clinical notes
*Photos (to observe the development of a complaint)
*Letters
*Print outs from monitoring equipment
*Incident reports
*Emails
*X-rays
*Lab reports


Principles of record keeping
*Handwriting must be legible for others to read.
*Must be signed inluding name and job title printed alongside first entry.
*The date and time must be recorded.
*Records must be in chronological order.
*Language must be easily understood (no jargon!!) and must be accurate with clear meaning.
*Records should identify risks and problems and the possible actions that were taken.
*However, the records must never be altered or destroyed.

Confidentiality
This relates closely to the last topic really.
Confidentiality is defined as 'the duty to maintain confidence and thereby respect the privacy of patients health information'.

Regarding confidentiality, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) states that...
1. You need to be fully aware of the legal requirements and guidance regarding confidentiality, and ensure your practice is in line with national and local policies.
2. You should not discuss the people in your care in places where you might be overheard. Nor should you leave records, either on paper or on computer screens, where they might be seen by unauthoried staff or members of the public.
3. You should not take or keep photographs of any person or their family, that are not clinically relevant.
So, yeah. It's pretty serious stuff.

Drug Calculations
I love this bit. (;

Drug calculations are important in nursing because obviously administering the wrong dosage of medication could potentially kill someone! (Extreme, maybe, but it could happen...)

Here is a little guide for converting metric units of measure...


                   x1000                        x1000
Grams (g) -------> Milligrams (mg) -------> Micrograms (mcg)
Grams (g) <------- Milligrams (mg) <------- Micrograms (mcg)
                   /1000                        /1000

So...
1g = 1000mg
And...
1mg = 1000 mcg

Moving the decimal point
x1000
Move dm 3 places right.

/1000
Move dm 3 places left.

So...
0.04g = 40mg = 40 000mcg

Test yourself on these conversions...
1. 30 g = ____ mg
2. 2 mg = ____ mcg
3. 800 mg = ____ g
4. 50 mcg = ____ mg
5. 20 mg = ____ g
6. 6500 mcg = ____ mg
7. 900 mg = ____ g
8. 0.1 mg = ____ g
9. 0.25 g = ____ mg
10. 125 mg = ____ g

For more information and more test questions check out this website and this book.

Another tip I have is to go into your local drug store (EG. Superdrug, Boots, Tescos, Asda, Wilkies...) and have a little look at the labels of some medication. Imagine the drugs being prescribed to a patient and think up some possible prescriptions in your head. It's all good practise!


Oral Medication Calculations
Kind of the same as before but now we must administer the right amount of drug to meet the specific needs of a patient.

Example:
A patient prescribed 2.5 mg of ramipril orally. Each tablet contains 1.25 mg. How many tablets should be given? Answer = 2.

Another Example:
How many Metronide 200 mg should be given for a prescription of Metronidazole 400 mg orally? Answer = 2.

Further Example:
How many 30 mg tablets of Codeine should be given for a prescription of Codeine 45 mg? Answer = 1.5.

Test yourself on these calculations...
1. A client is ordered 300 milligrams of Thioridazine. 100 milligram tablets are available. How many tablets will you give?
2. A client is ordered 1 milligram of Diazepam. 2 milligram tablets are available. How many tablets will you give?
3. A client is ordered 0.5 milligrams of Digoxin. 250 microgram tablets are available. How many tablets will you give?
4. A client is ordered 30 milligrams of Diltiazem hydrochloride. 60 milligram tablets are available. How many tablets will you give?
5. A client is ordered 62.5 micrograms of Benztropine Mesylate. 0.25 mg tablets are available. How many tablets will you give?

And that's it! I know it was quite a long post again!
Just to let you know I'll be continually updating my blog of the topics I post about, since in Nursing you are constantly learning new things. I'll especially be updating about what I've learnt in reflection and drug calc. In later posts I hope to discuss dosages of meds for injections and intravenous infusion which I think will be very exciting! ;D
I hope you've enjoyed this post! It has taken me a long time to type all this up! ^ ^
Take care.

Emily

Introductions: Starting the first semester

Hello!
Welcome to the first ever post on 'Through The Labyrinth'! My name is Emily and I am a first year Adult Nursing student at University Campus Suffolk. The aim of this blog is pretty much just to act as a kind of portfolio (so i can look back on my time at university at the end of the three years). It will also be a learning resource. I hope to post information about what I am learning in lectures and stuff and also this blog is just so that I can vent my emotions and stress etc.
Anyway, more about me, eh? Well, I chose nursing because it seems like a good enough career. I've always wanted to work in a hospital because I pretty much grew up in hopsitals because of visiting other family members so I never feel strange walking into hospitals...
Anyway, I like studying. Always have, really. My best subjects at school were maths and science. I love anatomy and physiology (A&P) as well.
Ok, so I've just started university. I started Monday and it's currently only a few days into the semester. Induction week has been ok I suppose. We've pretty much just been sitting there listening to lecturers drone on and on about 'deadlines', 'expectations' and blah-blah-blah... admittedly it HAS been fairly... BORING. I almost fell asleep, tbf. -_-
But I really love the UCS campus, it is situated on the Ipswich waterfront and it's so beautiful. On my daily commute I walk along the waterfront. Today the sun glistened off the surface of the water. It was beautiful.
I must say, however, I have a few tips for prospective 2012/2013 students who will be starting in September.
Below are a few tips for the first few days of university. What to bring, how to prepare and what to expect of your first few days...

What to bring...
*A notebook - at least A6 size. You will find that you'll be writing down you timetable/important names and dates. Don't forget this!!
*Two pens - in case one decides to break.
*A plastic A4-size wallet - you will be given SO MANY random pieces of paper, this will be INVALUABLE! Also, being plastic it will protect important papers from rain, leaking water bottles etc. Practically idiot proof.
*Money - Even if you plan to bring a packed lunch, you may decide to get a coffee or a blueberry muffin on-campus at breaktime, which is NOT cheap, might i add.
*Mobile Phone - To text mummy or daddy to let them know how you're getting on! But!!! Keep it on silent. No vibrate! No wolf-whistle ringtones, either.
*SFE info - Probably the most important thing to bring after yourself. Without Student finance information, the admin office will not be able to scan the little barcode to confirm your attendance and you know what THAT means. Yep. NO MONEY until your attendnce is confirmed. Make sure you bring it. Otherwise it'll take longer to get your money.
*Enrolment confirmation - Without this, you might not be allowed into classes.

How to prepare...
*Clothing and (a supportive and comfortable) bag (not a handbag) - Prepare your clothing, lay them out ready. Pack your bag and put it by the door, the night before. This means that if you wake up late, you can just grab them and GO!! Also, please, please DO NOT bring a handbag. Your shoulder will ache at the end of the day. It's not worth it. Wear a good, strong and supportive rucksack. Believe it or not, many people do. It's not just a geek thing. These rucksacks are good.
*ALARM CLOCK!! - Do i really need to explain this one? Set your alarm at a reasonable time to allow yourself to get up, have a shower, get changed, have something to eat and actually get there!
*Books - It's nice to be enthusiastic about your course and all but DON'T buy any books until after the first lecture at least! I actually lost count of how many times my lecturers have told us NOT to buy books until we are absolutely sure that we need it. Remember, google books is just as good and the library at your college is brilliant too! Use these resources as much as you can! They are free after all.
*Sleep - Please, please, please!!! Get enough sleep the night before!! Believe it or not lectures are actually very tiring. If your uni is campus based, you will find that you will walk around a lot and also talk a lot which really drains your energy! So go to bed at a reasonable time, say 10:00-ish. No, not 01:00. please. No Xbox if you can help it. No video games! You need sleep!! Don't waste this valuable time!
*Grooming - I know I kind of touched on this but I thought of something else... Make sure that you clothe yourself according to the weather. Don't make the same mistakes I did in the first few days. Look outside as you wake up. Is it raining? Windy? Chilly? What is the weather forecast for the day? Chilly at first but warmer later? Plan ahead! Also, get a hair cut one-two weeks before to allow it to grow in a bit. (It will look better!) And DON'T pluck your eyebrows in the morning. Unless you want red patches on your face for others to stare at... Also, this kinda ties in...
*Personal hygiene - Let's face it, no-one wants to sit next to someone with a BO problem. And no-one wants to be friends with someone with smelly hair or dirty clothes. It's just COMMON SENSE!! I mean, I don't mean to be rude but, COME ON!! There's NO excuse. Have a shower/bath in the morning. Not the night before. You actually sweat a LOT whilst sleeping. Plus, it makes you feel more alert and more ready to face the day.
*Enrolment - Another very inportant point. Make sure you enrol before you go for your first day. Depending on the university, you'll either enrol online or by post. Make sure you check the post or e-mail inbox regularly for any notifications from the uni telling you to enrol. If you dont enrol, well... you won't be on the registration list on your first day... And that might cause a few problems... Also, you won't get your student ID card, which (especially at my uni) will mean you will have very limited access to university facilities meaning you won't be able to gain access to the lecture theatres, library and other vital study areas.
*Reading - Some courses (not all) will send you a reading list before you start your course. Make sure you read all that is required. You don't wanna be behind on the first day.
*Your own laptop & printer - A few weeks before I would say it is very wise to invest in a good laptop. Why? You will NOT (or rather you will but it would be extremely difficult) for you to study/complete assignments/dissertation without your own laptop. Even if you share a laptop with a sibling/other family member or partner. Chances are, the other person will get peed off with having restricted time on the laptop to play World Of Warcraft or.. whatever they play... and this means home life will start to bug you. If you have NO money before you start I would recommend buying a laptop as soon as your SFE payment has been received. Laptops are amazing. They are portable works of art, use them to your advantage. Here is the one I have. (Another tip: don't buy a laptop just because it's cheap. Chances are it's a pile of poo. Spend the extra £100-ish for better quality). Also, buy your own printer. There will be lines and lines of people at the college printers and what if the printers are 'out of order' the day of the deadline? Opps. Yep, spend that extra £30 and get a decent printer. It will save you a lot of stress later on. This is my one.

Other tips...
*Dont be afraid to be alone - Granted, it would be great to make friends on the first day but this doesn't always happen. If you find yourself in this predicament there are always areas you can escape to by yourself at lunchtime. Most libraries have eating areas and I'm sure there are plenty of off-campus coffee shops. And not forgetting McDonalds or Burger king. Remember, it's only the first week. Chill. After classes or in study periods take a little walk to find some of these smaller coffee shops that charge a fraction of the price Costa and Starbucks do. Plus, there are, more often, no queues which means less study time to waste. Also, do the same for study spots. In the first two weeks seek out quiet areas for study. Some places will be more crowded than others but there are always quieter times and quieter areas around campus.
*Don't shout out in lectures - might sound a bit weird but it's true. So many people just shout out their 'answers' during a discussion. Be polite and raise your hand slightly just to get the lecturers attention. Granted, you're not a child anymore but it's just something called 'manners'. You don't wanna shout something out and then the lecturer isn't even listening to you. Embarrassing, much? Also, there is someone kinda like this is my lectures and she has no friends. I mean, there might not be a correlation but I'm betting that that is why...
*Don't flirt - Again, I can explain. Don't push yourself forward on guys. It's weird. You've JUST met them. Sure, greet them as you pass in the halls or make small talk like you've been doing to pretty much everyone on your course. Just, rule out flirting. It's humiliating. So just don't (at least for induction/when you're sober anyway...). Also, guys might think you're desparate and might take advantage later on. Other girls might think you are just being their friends to get the boys attention. Either way, you're screwed.
*NO chewing gum - Remember in high school when you got told off for chewing gum in class? Well, don't chew in lectures. It's distracting and you might get told to spit it out. On your first day. In front of 150 other people in the lecture theatre. Don't humiliate yourself. Please. Most lecturers don't like you eating/drinking in classes anyway. But if you really can't stand it, eat a mint.
*Try to enjoy it - uni is hard but it's also very exciting and its very different to what you may have experienced at sixth form or school or wherever. There is more freedom. But in the first two weeks just pace yourself. You dont HAVE to join societies or sign up to be a course rep etc in the first two days. Just settle in. Take it easy. Don't spread yourself too thin or you'll have less time for assignments/studying. Enjoy what you're learning. You are paying for it after all! xD

Ok, I've said enough ^^
What a lovely first post, eh? (:
Very longggg. But, hey.
I hope it was helpful. Check back soon for my next post!!

Emily