Hello all,

It’s my last week on placement at the Home in Richmond this week. I can’t believe 11 weeks have gone so fast! So much has happened and I’ve learnt a lot. I think the main thing I’ve worked on has been communication. This is so important with the residents, family and staff alike. It’s quite an undertaking to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible each and everyday, and this is due to positive communication, initially with the staff and then whilst spending time with the residents.

Although I already loved The Royal Star & Garter Homes, my time working clinically here has been really amazing and I’ve enjoyed it all. Of course there have been some challenging times, especially when one of the residents isn’t so well, but everyone really pulls together to make the best of the situation.

Working so close to my mum and to my gran has also been really lovely. I can just pop in and say hello whenever I want (except when I’m on shift of course). I have met some really interesting people, such as the board of governors, the dementia care matters team and many of the residents who I either hadn’t meet or hadn’t seen in quite some time.

One of my favourite memories is of an afternoon spent getting pretty out of breath, playing cricket with one the residents. She loves ball games and so we started with just throwing and catching, but then she saw the bat. So she instructed me to stand a certain distance away whilst she threw the balls and I had to hit them. She would only ‘high five’ me if I hit all 6 balls. It was really fun and she seemed to enjoy it so much!

As well and providing nursing care, I’ve also really enjoyed seeing the way a great care home runs. There is so much to think about and to incorporate! The staff here are brilliant and such characters!

But on Friday I will say adieu to everyone and I then get a month of holiday. Yippee! I’m going on a 3 week trip to New Zealand. I was born there and lived there until I was 10, so I have a lot of family and friends still over there. It’ll be really nice to catch up with everyone and also see the scenery and some of the places I used to go when I was younger! My main plan is to go to the set of the Lord of the Rings films where they filmed the Hobbit. I’m nervous about the long flight, but excited about the whole trip.

After that I have 4 weeks to fill with some nursing placements in places I wouldn’t usually be able to experience, such as  a children’s hospital or a district nurse setting. This allows the students to gain a greater knowledge of the role of nursing in different settings. I’m really looking forward to it as I am hoping to spend a week with an ambulance service, another week on an air base doing search and rescue and another week in a children’s hospital. I’m hoping it’ll be a great experience.

Anyway, I hope you are all well and I’ll update you more soon.

Alex

P.S. It’s now been a year since I was deemed fit enough after my injury to start training again! Yippee!