The University Diaries

Left to right: high vis trousers, purple stethoscope case, 2018/19 diary, deodorant, epaulettes, hand-cream, lip balm, hairbands, phone charger, PAD, tissues, pens and dried fruit. I have had two years now to work out what I need in my placement bag, and I think I have nearly got it down! My placement bag is a plain old rucksack, which is big enough to fit all my kit in it, but small enough to fit in the kit locker. Trust kit bags are usually long holdalls, and kit lockers were definitely not built for three of these! Here are my placement bag essentials. PPE So first off, we have our personal protective equipment.We get issued with a pair of high vis trousers and a jacket. I have never used the trousers, although I could see myself using them on a long job when it is cold, dark or wet. My trousers live in my bag (with most of the labels on them still... oops!) and my jacket lives in between my bag and just in the kit locker. I try to make sure my jacket it accessible at ...

The first term can be really exciting and really daunting, but do not worry, everyone is in the same boat. The important parts of the first term are to acquaint yourself with your fellow student paramedics, get settled into uni and university life and to learn the basics. Here is how to do that! At Home If you are living at university, normally universities will give you contact details for the people you will be living with so you can have a chat with them before you move in. They also normally try to put you in houses with people who are on a similar course or have common interests to you. There are also normally large group chats which are made by people on the course so that everyone can chat before they meet properly for the first time. Either look for a Freshers Facebook Group for your university or you can look on Paramedic groups on facebook, such as So You Want To Be A Paramedic. If you do not see anyone in there from your university, feel free to post nicely and people wil...

I've now had two years to badly prepare myself for night shifts. I have done it lots of different ways rightly and wrongly, but this is the way that works best for me! On my days off I try to bulk cook some food and portion it up so I always have a food option for me. I currently do not have much money and picking up unplanned snacks can really break the bank. I also try to get up on laundry, but I only wash laundry at night as we have an economy 7 meter which means I pay less for electric overnight. This makes it difficult as I do not spend a whole day doing laundry... It is a constant slog! 6am I get up nice and early normally anyway, but definitely on night shifts when I am aiming for an afternoon nap. I get up, get dressed (this is so, so important to set yourself in the mood for a productive day!) and have breakfast. Then I will wash up and make sure the house is in order. 7.30am Time to write a to do list! My most productive days are where I write lists that have smal...

So my second week of hospital placements was in Labour Ward! This was really exciting to me because I wondered whether or not I should be a midwife and I am really excited for the first time that I will catch a baby on my own on the road! If you have not read about my first week of placement, that can be found here . Background So I required 37.5 hours for this placement block, which equates to three long days as the midwives work 12.5 hour days. I worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (and then I moved house!) so the week was quite tiring. I was at the same hospital that I did my Acute Medical Unit placement in, which was great as I knew roughly where to park and how long it would take me to get to and from placement (approximately 30 minutes). I was not given any prior information and I was not designated a mentor, so I just turned up on my first day! Day 1 My day started at 6am (which is quite the lie in after the previous week!). I had breakfast and some tea and left the house...

So, I am half way through my first trimester and I thought it would be a good idea to give an update because I have had quite a few fellow students ask how I have been finding it! I am glad I am actually helping others with my experience! The first month in second year was a ball.  I felt on top with everything. I was working full time and managing a couple of days in uni and everything was grand. I wrote up my lecture notes before the lecture so I could sit, annotate and absorb during the lecture. I found the information and understanding it was stretching me, but in a good way. I kept up! Even in the labs I seemed to be doing pretty well, especially in comparison to the previous year. I was answering questions that others were getting wrong, and I took part in one scenario (with another person as a crew on a truck) where my lecturer said we did the best out of everyone he had seen. I definitely needed this confidence boost as I was feeling a bit deflated as I always felt beh...

The Practice Assessment Document (PAD) will rule your life during your 10 weeks of placement in your first year of uni. Here are my tips for passing your PAD, and how to make it easier. Enjoy! What is the PAD and what does it include? The PAD is your evidence for completing certain skills whilst on placement which is pass or fail. Your mentor (or PED) has to fill it out identifying which jobs you have been exposed to, and how you handled them. They can grade you as assisted (needing help), minimal supervision (the odd prompt here or there) or independent (woo, go you! Did it safely all by yourself). It includes skills from your Skills Passport and adds in other essential skills too, such as: airway management, cervical spine immobilisation, fracture splinting, IM injections and signposting to alternative pathways. There is are patient assessment pages, which patients fill out about how they feel you treated them, and there is a personal review on your time on placement. Your me...

Happy Freshers Week!!! I am sure plenty of students are living with a pretty impressive hangover currently, but that does not give you an excuse to one-up your degree! Whether you are first or final year, here are some tips to boost your productivity and start your year on the right foot. Check Out Your Timetable! Whilst you may not start lectures until October, you should get yourself familiar with your timetable ASAP. Get a big wall planner or a diary and write down every lecture, lab time and activity that you want/have to go to. If societies have meets, write it down. If your degree has optional sessions, write it down. If you record everything, when you come to book in other things then you cannot forget anything. Last year I missed most of our optional forums as I did not write them down, causing me to miss some fun education and free pizza. As you pay over £9000 for your degree, you may as well try to go to everything offered to get your moneys worth from the university. I...

I think that academic year 2018/19 sounds really exciting! I am currently going into Year 2 of my Paramedic Science BSc with other plans and ventures in mind. Here are some rambles from me which may motivate you to be a better you in the coming academic year. My Degree Plans   So Year 2 is where is gets serious. All of your grades count and second year is considerably harder than first year! I have been told by my lecturer to start revising for my pharmacology exam over the summer as there is lots to learn, so I need to start that soon. I also plan to be far more organised when it comes to essay writing as all of my essays in first year were completed unnecessarily stressfully and I know that I could easily start and finish them earlier, probably producing work of a better quality. I plan to go to all of my lectures (I missed one or two last year from being ill) and to try to fully absorb the information by reducing my distractions (talking, playing on my phone etc). I am al...

I am the definition of a poor student (without a maintenance loan oops) so I have established some handy ways to save money. Let me know if I have missed anything and I'll include it in my next version! Enjoy! Student Amazon Prime (for free) I use Amazon Prime for all my stationery, household items and gifts. I am the Queen of forgetting people's Birthdays (at least I am honest!). I always use (student) Amazon Prime to get reduced price items with free next day delivery. This means I can forget a Birthday until the night before and buy something to give to them the following night. If you use this code then you can receive 6 months free then have a massive reduction to less than £4 a month for a subscription. This also includes films, music and discounts on textbooks. I find it really handy to use as I can decide I want something at 10pm and have it at my door the following day without having to go out and get it. The best part of student amazon prime is that you can can...

So in the first term of the first year at my university, we are required to complete a Skills Passport as part of our Preparation for Clinical Practice module. This was a pass/fail document which was required to pass for you to be able to pass the module alongside an essay and presentation. I do not know if every university completes this module in the same way, but feel free to comment below either way as it is interesting for me and other people! So the passport included various basic skills assessed by peers, such as taking temperatures, manual blood pressures, blood glucose readings (BM) and various manual handling techniques. It also comprised of slightly more serious basic skills assessed by tutors, such as adult and paediatric airways, c-spine immobilisation and basic life support and automated external defibrillator (BLS and AED). There were also requirements to complete the online training modules for areas such as safeguarding and data protection. There were lots of oppor...

Placement is such a hectic place! Due to my shift schedule I am five weeks in but have done 4 blocks due to the four days on, five days off schedule. Somehow I am currently working almost full time over the placement block. I will finish at 6.30am on my last night shift, come home and head to sleep until 12pm, wake up and head to work. This is a great way for me to be able to afford placement, but I don't have a life! It is very difficult acting this way, especially as I am either on placement or asleep the rest of the time. Fortunately due to the crews I am working with, I am enjoying the shifts so much it feels less like a job and more like a lifestyle. Update on my First Five Weeks I have had such a variety of shifts. I am placed on the border of London, but as we do not respond to London Ambulance Service (LAS) calls, we can only head out in one direction, which means we regularly finish (very) late. On the plus side, you must have 11 hours between shifts, so usually if yo...

My placement schedule is usually 2 days, 2 nights, 5 days off (which is really good). One in every 4 shifts there is an extra day shift in there as this is the pattern my mentor has on her line, which I follow. With this placement I have been really lucky to get a mentor who is on a line at a station as this means that my shifts are set (basically a year in advance) and I only have one mentor (unless I have to make up any shifts as I cannot do them). On placement, I am one of the lucky ones! Lots of people have multiple mentors and stations, and I am very lucky that I have been given consistency as I do get quite anxious at not being in control of the situation and not knowing what the outcome will be. This week went from being a long, 3 days and 2 nights, week, to a 3 days and 1 night. I have had a shift moved, which my mentor kindly discussed when we could both do this shift as she had to change it due to her mentoring course (to mentor me). Some mentors are willing to be flexibl...

Textbooks can be very expensive, however they can be really valuable if you have the correct ones! In my first term, we completed two modules: Preparation for Clinical Practice (Prep for Prac) and Skills for Study. I only bought textbooks for Prep for Prac, and if I had bought them early I could really have got ahead of the game. Obviously some universities use different textbooks, however I found these the most useful in my first term. JRCALC Clinical Practice Guidelines 2017 Pocket Book This is probably the most important book you will ever buy, lecturers say it is your bible... It is! And it is so incredibly important that you have this! It fits perfectly in your trouser pocket (when you have your uniform) and loves your annotations and dog ear marks. They update every year around October time (but you will probably want it before then), and do not worry about having an old version if the new one is not out yet. You will find the list of updates online and it is usually only one...

Many reasons can determine your decision for living away or at home as a student. I am a 'Living at Home' medical student with placements, and here are the reasons behind my choice and also an evaluation of my circumstances. I hope this is able to provide some clarification, as when I was choosing a university I did not really know what I was looking for. Making Friends Those living in halls have a head start when making friends. Generally they move in about a week before term, take part in all the freshers events and get to know everyone they are living with. Making friends this way is really easy, especially as halls tend to mix courses, so you do not spend all day in lectures with people you are living with. If you do not live at uni, on your first day it can be a bit daunting as you may not know anyone there. Fear not! So many other people are in the same position as you! The nice thing about uni is that everyone talks to each other and it is really easy to make frie...

Hello. I am a paramedic science student, living at home. I have recently completed my first term of university and this is a collection of my thoughts. University is an incredible place. I am lucky to attend a small uni which means that the experience is more personal. It is 30 minutes from where I live, making living at home and transportation relatively easy. My course is a larger cohort for the subject, with 80 students in lectures and 40 students in labs. I understand that this is far smaller than regular science courses, but we are the largest healthcare cohort in the uni. My cohort is diverse, formed of 18 year olds who are fresh out of school, those who already have a degree in another subject area and parents with children. It is interesting having such a wide range of opinions and experiences because everyone brings something different to the table. In the lecture hall you find love, conflict, laughter and tears. This course hits everyone differently at different times. I...