Page 18 - The Gazette Autumn 2023

18 The Gazette QARANC Association
Diary of a new nurse:
‘My first month was a blur’
Cpl Kerry Thompson comes from a family of nurses and is starting her journey at Joint Hospital Group Southeast JHG(SE). This is her story.
My first shift as a newly qualified nurse (NQN) I set my alarm extra early as I was terrified of being late! As I got up and got ready, I thought I would be more nervous, but I wasn’t. I had been a healthcare assistant (HCA) for five years before joining the Army. My HCA knowledge helped me tremendously as a student nurse and I hoped it would continue to do so now as a qualified member of staff.
I worked hard for three years at Birmingham City University (BCU) for this moment. I have always enjoyed caring for patients and I never had any doubts that nursing was the profession for me. Also, nursing is embedded in my family. My mother is an HCA and has been most of her life, my sister a mental health nurse and my cousin an adult nurse. That said, I did apprehensions of the ward I was going into and felt pressure to deliver the best care for my patients as they deserve no less.
On 20 March 2023, I was one of seven newly qualified nurses from BCU who joined JHG(SE). Having familiar faces with me made the move a little less daunting as we were all going through the same process of starting our nursing careers.
The first two weeks of induction were full of meetings, military briefs, online courses, getting issued to our uniform, occupational health clearance, DBS checks, NHS e-learning, military fitness tests, etc. All while finding are way around a new town, new hospital, and new living arrangements.
My first month at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey was a blur. It was a constant balancing act of keeping up to date with my military responsibilities whilst fine tuning my clinical skills and completing nursing
The NHS is in staffing crisis – from January to March last year there were 105,855 vacancies.
competencies. It wasn’t until one of the nursing officers explained to me that I now have “two full time jobs” and it was my responsibility to find a balance between both military responsibilities and nursing responsibilities.
Keeping a constant focus on both and highlighting when I need to prioritise one more than the other is a skill that I will need to finetune thorough out my career.
NQN’s at JHG(SE) have a year to complete their preceptorship and their Defence Operational Nursing Competences, (DONC) and are provided with study days to aid our development. There is a military preceptorship lead who links in with NHS staff and ensures we have adequate exposure and learning in military aspects of patient care so we can be signed off for are DONC.
The military provides Practice Development Nurses who work alongside us on the wards to get competencies such as are oral medication, intravenous medications, catheterization, venepuncture, cannulation etc to be practiced and signed off.
On the week I started on the wards the junior doctors were on strike for four days. The NHS is in staffing crisis – from January to March last year there were 105,855 vacancies. Nevertheless, patients with complex conditions, and multi morbidities are still getting admitted into NHS hospitals requiring specialist treatment.
Fast forward 12 weeks on AMU and I feel my clinical skills, clinical judgement and medication knowledge have developed promptly. Receiving patients direct from A&E or via GP referral and providing rapid assessments, investigations and treatments means AMU is fast paced, and every shift is varied.
Often bays get flipped and I can start a shift with seven female patients and finish with seven male patients, resulting in caring for 14 different patients in the same shift. Patient transfers happen for number of reasons, like them needing to go to specialist wards, or having to move to another bed space to fit additional patient in from A&E. Working on AMU you never know what type of patient you will be looking after that day.
AMU has taught me that when caring for patients with different conditions it is vital to have excellent communications with patients and colleagues. If I am unsure about a treatment plan, I always ask for this to be clarified. AMU has made me more adaptable and assertive when I need help or things have been missed.
All these skills of working well under pressure and adapting to changing situations are transferable when stepping out of the NHS and into a military environment.
Cpl Kerry Thompson preparing an oral medication