The University Diaries

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...

I love pizza, but I realised I had no yeast (and I like to make everything from scratch if possible) so this is my scone-base pizza! Enjoy! Time taken: 45 minutes total Serves 2 to 4 people (depending on how hungry you are!) Ingredients Base   (Make sure you have a small amount of spare milk/flour to make it up if it is too dry or too wet) 250g self raising flour 50g cold (block) butter 100ml milk Topping   (You can put almost anything on your pizza! The only thing is I would recommend your sauce on the base, and enough cheese to cover the sauce. And the rest? The world is your oyster!) Tomato puree // BBQ sauce Cheese (enough to cover sauce 6 slices of pepperoni 1 onion Ham Jalapenos Method Pre-heat your oven to 200c fan 1. Sieve your flour to remove lumps and add the cold butter, cut the butter into small squares. 2. Rub the squares of butter until it resembles breadcrumbs. 3. Add your milk slowly and mix with a knife or spoon, stop adding the milk w...

Week three, and I am living in my new house! Such a huge adjustment having my own garden and house (I no-longer live in a bungalow - result!) and the un-packing process was definitely not smooth, but here is my placement, yet again. So this placement was purely described to me as 'Prosthetics Mental Health' with no further information given. In-patients, out-patients or community? I had no idea what to expect, and this week was full of surprises. Background Again, I required 37.5 hours for my placement block, however I knew this was not possible. Monday was the bank holiday, and the clinic was open from 9 to 4 every day (except weekends and bank holidays). I was asked to arrive for 10am - a huge lie in! I spoke to my university placement contact who assured me that my hours would be made up (presumably with my ambulance placement). Day 1 So I live approximately one hour from this placement, but due to its location being very close to London, I gave myself about 2 hours to...

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...

Hello everyone! Over the past couple of weeks, I have been flapping like a fish out of water; and this is why! We are on our 'out of ambulance placements', ie our hospital placements. We have five weeks of hospital placements in both Year 2 and Year 3, and the Acute Medical Unit was my first one! I am going to give you an account of these placements so you know what to expect on your degree. I had no idea what to expect but all in all, it was not too bad! Background We have 5 different placements in 5 weeks of hospital placements, each week is different. This week was arranged as my Assessment Unit placement, where patients are assessed, examined and begin their pathway. It is arranged by the university and I know that all of my fellow students have been placed all over the county with up to 2 hour travelling times and expensive car parking. We have to make up 37.5 hours each week and we have a POD (Practice Observation Document) which is a bit like a PAD  but more observati...

Left to right: ID badge, stethoscope, radio clip, shears/tough cuts, lip balm, tourniquet,  alcohol gel and clip, pens and pen torch. Here are my uniform essentials! Read on for where I position these items and the bits I did not include on the photo. ID Badge I put this on my collarbone where the loops are, you need your ID badge as ID (obviously) but also to get into the buildings. On your first shift you will need to tap it against the keypad and it will beep to let you in! Just a side note, some ambulance stations have really funny locks on them, so to get out, you may have to turn a grey knob to get yourself out (better to know than not!). Stethoscope I use this  Littman III Cardiology stethoscope (in orange, as you can see) and it is great because it's head twists to hear more sensitive sounds. I generally keep my steth in my knee pockets, however I have two points to make. Firstly, keeping it in your pocket can slightly disfigure it or it can get caught on t...

One thing that is the same for almost everyone is that you need savings to buy a house. Back in the day, you did not actually need any money to get a mortgage, but things have changed. When it comes to buying a house, the bigger the deposit you have means the lower your monthly repayment and/or the greater the house value you can afford. Moving costs money. Every aspect of it: the literal moving of the furniture, fees, checks, repairs etc. It is not cheap and some money will feel as though it is going straight down the drain, so when you have your deposit saved, some of that will be required to go towards house buying fees, so you always need to save as much as possible to put yourself in the best position Introduction This is a personal account of how I have saved my money. Currently all of my debit and savings accounts are with Nationwide Building Society, and I have one credit card with Tesco Bank. Over the years I have compared different banks and building societies, and I ha...

This is the first in my new series: The House Diaries! Anyone who knows me vaguely probably knows how ready I am to move my bum into my own house. I have probably been ready to move out since before I went to university, and every year since then I am more and more ready. I struggle living at home with my parents due to the lack of space, freedom and privacy, and for my mental health and well-being, it is really clear that I need to live in my own space doing my own life things. To start out, I am a university student, student paramedic and have multiple jobs although currently (early 2019) I am in a rubbish position because I am in the process of changing jobs, but my old job finished a month ago and its taken months for my new job to start so I am majorly struggling for income. I am in a long term relationship with my boyfriend who is in the process of qualifying with a teacher and he currently has a teaching bursary and a contract ready for next year. We are both quite low mainten...

Once you are over the honeymoon stage of your degree - those wonderful first few weeks where you cannot wait to read your textbooks and read up on everything - the degree marriage life becomes real. Three years feels like an awful long time whilst disappearing in a flash, and quite honestly, I feel like I have been ripped off a bit. If you love every second of your degree life, probably do not keep reading, this could turn out to be a bit negative. I never wanted to go to university. I have always been of the mindset that I want to work, earn my own money, buy a house and live my life. University felt like far too much of a commitment that would get in the way of things I loved. I decided that I wanted to go when I was set on becoming a physiotherapist. I had gone to open days and sat in talks, which is where I heard about the Paramedic Science degree. Since I was small, I wanted to be a paramedic (as my parents were in the police doing 'exciting' jobs, combined with my love ...

Interviews can be very daunting! The pressure mounts proportionally to how much you want the job too, not helping interview nerves! Here are the things I have found to help me be successful during job and educational interviews. Dress for the job you want I am sure that some people will disagree with this, however I wholeheartedly believe this to be essential. If you want a job as a professional, you need to dress like one. The interviewers first impression is likely to be of how you look, and the way they respond initially will set the mood. This means, if you are interviewing as a healthcare student, student nurse, student paramedic you need to dress as though you are. Some interviews can bring unexpected segments, so you may need to demonstrate CPR, and that does not look great in a skirt. Obviously wear what you look comfortable and smart in and what makes you feel confident, however if your potential job is going to require you to roll around the floor, you may want to demons...