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Language: en

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I remember how nervous I was before my
first placement, I never done any sort of

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care work before so I had no idea what
to expect really. I went to the ward

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where I would be and asked if I could
have a look around this helped but I was

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shocked at how poorly some of the
patients looked.

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I made sure I was well prepared for my
first day and my first weeks hours

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already from a phone call the previous
week, had some pens and scissors I nearly

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forgot my lunch
but luckily remembered about a mile from

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home and went back for it. Had no idea
what food would be available in the

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hospital or even if I would even get the
opportunity to leave the ward I

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certainly didn't want to be stuck
without food.

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I was mostly worried about the silly
things though and these included getting

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up on time and being able to communicate
with the patients. My first placement was

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a stroke ward so I was nervous that I
wouldn't be able to understand what the

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patients are trying to ask me because of
this I barely spoke to any patients

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during my first shift. After a couple of
shifts though I started to feel much

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more comfortable I wondered why I hadn't
tried this change of currying years ago.

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I started to relax and enjoy my
placement

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as I did more placements I became more
confident and I was not worried at

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all about my first day like I was at my
early placements. I was always wondering

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whether I'd have a supportive mentor who's
enthusiastic and willing to let me get

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stuck in wherever possible. I found that
my biggest problem was trying to run

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before I could walk
and because my mentors didn't know me

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very well at first they were reluctant
to trust me with any complicated tasks

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over time I learned to accept this and
got used to spending the first couple of

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days acclimatising to the environment
and allowing time for the mentor to get

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to know me.

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I must say though that as my course
progressed the stress of being on

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placement or having assignments took its
toll on me and many other students in my

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cohort. In particular second and third
year we had an assignment that had to be

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a reflection of my evidence and my
learning, this was stressful because we

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were under pressure to produce really
good evidence or else the assignment

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would be really difficult to write. We
had to hand it in very soon after the

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placement finished so there was added
pressure to write that whilst on

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placement. I tried to plan what was going
to write and schedule time to do this

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and this actually really helped for me I
still make lots of lists and timetables

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and try to plan what I need to do. I find
that putting it on a list gets out of my

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head.

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I found that time or lack of it has been
the biggest cause of stress for me

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during my placement, this is partly my
fault because I also work part-time but

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this is a reality for many other
students in order to make ends meet.

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I've sometimes struggled squeeze a work
shift in whilst on placement

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particularly when I was approaching a
deadline fast. I found that in no time

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for working and this is added to my
stress because then I have no spare cash.

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I feel much better now though I'm nearly
at the end of my course and it's boosted

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my confidence to know that I have a job
at the end of it so my advice is to

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stick with it because when you finish
that last assignment and placement it'd

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have all been worth it.