Placement - First day!

(Well I shall actually start on Sunday...)  I travelled up to Oxford to stay at Jas' house, as I don't yet have accommodation in reading. After a rather long journey, as I never seem to have much luck travelling, I arrived. Got my own little cupboard bedroom, which Kate assures me you can fit a double bed in... I have sofa cushions and a sleeping bag, but this works well for me, as I can sleep anywhere!

I wasn't looking forward to my alarm going off at 6am, especially when I kept waking up every hour or so last night, probably due to nerves. However, I wasn't that tired when I woke up, and even now, at gone 11pm, I'm not feeling too tired, so hope this continues!

I did the usual stuff on my first day, signed off paper work, was given a set of keys and a personal alarm etc. Also started to work out where I was and get to know the layout of the hospital a bit better! I got to sit in on an MDT handover, observe clinical notes being done, facilitate a group being ran, learnt a bit about the typical drugs on the ward, and now have an old copy of the BNF, and learnt a bit about the recovery group that is ran on the ward, and have a copy of the recovery pack used by both staff and patients.
The time flew by, it really didn't feel like I'd been there 9-5! The hospital and ward have a really nice feel to them, very positive and welcoming, not at all clinical. Additionally, all the staff and very friendly and helpful, and I've stared to make progress with the patients and start to formulate the therapeutic relationship.

Tomorrow I have training all day, it's for one of those electronic records cards that is plugged into the keyboard, like you see in the doctors. And Wednesday I get to run a reading group by myself, which I'm rather excited/nervous about!

I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into the placement, as I really think I am going to both enjoy and benefit greatly from it.

xx