Hello all,

I have some great news – I am at the Richmond Home! My sergeant asked if I would like to do my next placement at The Royal Star & Garter Home in Richmond, and be home for Christmas – so of course I said ‘yes please’.

I have completed two weeks working on F floor and I’m really enjoying it. It’s so interesting to be there from a clinical perspective after all my involvement in different parts of the charity since I was 16 years old. I am loving my time spent with the residents and getting to know them so much better. The quality of the care provided in the home is excellent and it is so wonderful to be around the residents 5 days a week and being part of their lives.

It’s also rewarding to be developing a deeper rapport and so nice when you can see that the residents are enjoying the time I am spending with them. There is another military student nurse from my cohort who has joined me at the home and she is lovely. We are provided with accommodation in the building for the duration of our placement, so we are getting to know each other better too. She’s on D floor and so is looking after my Gran. I know that she is  also really enjoying and valuing her experience at the home and says that it is so different from any work she’s done in care homes before. There is a lot of training and other learning opportunities arranged for us to attend which is great as it’s letting us see how the home runs and what updates the nurses need regularly in order to provide best practice care.

I’m presently on an exam week, back in Birmingham at University. We took the exam on Tuesday and have a deadline for an essay due on Friday. I finished the essay before starting placement and the exam went well, I think.  The results will be available in about 4 weeks. We’ve also had a briefing this week about a period of our nursing studies called ‘CAP’ – it stands for ‘Consolidation and Practice’ and is a chance for us to experience different clinical environments to gain more rounded experience. It could be in any field of nursing or care and can have a military slant. I’m really hoping to go to Headley Court for a week of it, but otherwise I’m not sure what to do.

Does anyone have an ideas they think I might benefit from?

I hope you are all well, and please pop in and say hello in the home – I’m there most days.

Thanks for reading,

Alex