The Nursing Thread :)
 

I was just thinking the other day, that there are quite a few, nurses, student nurses, and wanna be nurses on the site

and i thought it might be nice for us to have a place to discuss how our self harm affects our work/study/careeer options.

ive put it in vets general as im guessing were all over 18ish feel free to say if you think its in the wring place


ill start...

Hi im Debbie, im a staff nurse qualified almost a year
im currently on a rotational programe working in a young physocally disabled ward, but i move to endocrinology/general medical in 5 weeks to a permanant post i cant wait :)

wow you have done really well, i know how much pressure is on you from the course, i almost gave up after first year!
and even more well done for doing the mental health, i could not do that its too close to home, and when i applied i had been free of SH and mental health problens for 5 years

if you need any help or support please feel free to PM me :satisfied:

its slightly different for me as i am a general trained, and my real problems started during my course, i was in hospital about 3 months ago, all my work know is that i was off sick, i dont discuss it much in work, and it often feels like im hiding stuff, sometimes i feel i really shouldent be here, but my doctors all insist its the best thing for me to have structure, however im not sure as i have access to mant hazardous things, and sometimes like tonight when my head is in a bad place its hard
its hard to keep fighting and hard to give up.
the cpn discharged me cos of my careeer they didnt feel that being invilved with mental heat services would do my career any favours, im not sure how im supposed to get better without their help?
mental health services suck, i feel like they have made me worse.
im not sure if any of that was helpful or relevant - sorry

Hey Guys I'm Laura, I've been qualified for 4 years and work on a haematology unit. It didn't really affect my work to begin with. I had a history of SI when i was 14/15 but never really deep, just left a few mild scars on my arms which no-one has ever noticed, not even mu hubby! Then 10 years later i found myself SI again, mostly on my legs which was fine to hide from work - couldn't hide it from my husband. But a couple on my wrist weren't as easy to explain away. Think the cat got the blame in the end!
I find it hard to be in work coz i get very anxious a lot at the moment and wonder how the hell someone like me can help my patients get through their chemo and sometimes worse.
Have never been to my GP about it coz of my job, just feel like i'm on the wrong end of it all. Plus it would be too real, my husband never talks about it so we can all just pretend it never happens and look like a happy family!

Phew that was a lot longer than intended, just meant to say hi!!! x

hey laura

its really nice to meet you, the nice thing about RYL is that your never alone, im sorry your SI makes you feel inadequate as a nurse, i know what that feeling is like, im my medical ward i qute often get patients who have ODed and Shed and somtimes i get so angry with the other nurses oppinions and negative attitudes, i just think God! if only you knew, but hunni it doesent affect your abilitly to nurse i bet your amazing.
did something happen to make you start SIing again? i was a bit like you i shed as a teenager, but started again about 2/3 years ago during my training

if you fancy a chat feel free to pm me.

debbie

Hi,

I'm not a nurse but I'm really interested in doing mental health nursing or something similar. I'm off to university this month to study psychology but I'm thinking I'll probably do a mental health nurse training course after. I'm quite worried that my history will affect me being able to become a nurse and also that I may not be able to cope with it as I'm still not recovered (I haven't self-harmed for nearly 8 months but my mental health is still not good). However, I really would love to do it because I want to help people like I was helped and I know I'd be a lot more understanding than a lot of the nurses who treated me.

hey pixidust

thats really positive you have a goal to focus on and something to work towards, from what ive heard the universities are all verry different on their views to student nurses with past mental health problems, the uni i went to wouldnt touch any one but i have met other nurses/ student nurses on here whos universities were very supportive and had a ver positive attitude towards them

your experiences mean you have alot to give back and its great you can turn these negative things youve been through into positives

the only advice i can give you is that the course is extremyl intense, i became mentally ill again during my training after being free from sh for about 5 years, so make sure you are prepaired for the ammout of pressure you will be put under and be sure you are stable enough to handel it.

but i really hope you achieve your dreams good luck
*hugs*

Hey pixie, its great you want to get into mental health nursing but i agree with s-pod/debbie, its really a lot of hard work with full time hours, shift work with placements and a lot of stress and pressure. So definately go for it just make sure you're mentally strong and ready first. My uni was a bit funny about mental health issues (nooone ever knew about me til recently so wasn't a problem) but another local uni was fine and supportive. So good luck and nice to meet ya!

Hey Debbie, thanks for the welcome. Yeah I started SI again several months ago due to lots of things really. My husband had a motorbike accident and was in hospital for a while, plus turns out getting married and trying to get a house is stressful stuff, my granny was in hospital, my mum got diagnosed and is currently being treated for breast cancer, my mums also a drinker and can be hard work, i'm working full time plus doing my specialist practice course part time at uni in oncology/haematology, and i had a miscarriage at the end of may. So i think its just a build up of lots of stress, phew sounds worse when you list it all!!
How come you started SH again? I know the nursing course is very stressful, wouldn't do it again! lol. Other nurses attitudes sometimes really annoy me too, anyone with any mental health issues is automatically 'labelled' and its doesn't matter what it is, just handed over as 'oh they have a psychiatric history' and automatically are treated like a pysch patient, grr arg!

Great idea getting a nursing thread going btw! x

Hey.
I just started Health and Nursing today, although i hope to do Midwifery at uni. Anyone else want to do that?
Oh and i'm 19 :)

Ali xox

Was just scrolling around and saw this! =)

It's so inspiring seeing you all studying at uni/college doing your nursing, or related topics. Makes me smile - great thread **hugs for all**

So hi all. My name is Jen, 18 years old and I am doing an access course to do my nursing (a NC in Health and Social Care). I am wanting to do my general then go back to specailise in Learning Disabilities. At the moment I am a support worker, work with ex-long stay hospital service users with profound and multipile disability - such rewarding work.

I have self harmed for years, since I was about 12, maybe? I find it can be hard at work, especially when I find my self stopping someone hurting themselves when I do it myself (however I am about 3 months free now). Also the questions about my scars are hard to doge, but I am pretty honest about most things, which I found to be the best way forward.

Hope everyone is alright,

Take Care

Jen xx

Hey Ali nice to meet ya, good luck with your health and nursing course, how did your first day go? Midwifery wouldn't be for me but a couple of girls from my ward left to do it and love it.

Hi Jen, thats amazing the work your doing, its hard work. I'm sure you'll fly at your access course and get into general easily. You're experience will really help x

Hey Laura, it really does sound like you have been under a lot of stress *hugs* you have done well to hold it all togther and contiue studying too.
I started SI again after my marrage broke down, i turned out he had been cheating on me for some time, just found the whole thing really hard to deal with still do (he called today out of the blue as a matter of fact)

Hey Ali, good luck with your course :) and im afraid like laura midwifery is not for me.

Hey Jen, good luck with your acess course, your background sounds very similar to mine, i worked in the community with 4 ladies with LD in their own home before i started my training, they were not long out of long term hospital care, and i still do agency work with people with LD's someday i hope to go back to it.

nice to meet you both

Oh Debbie so sorry to hear about your marriage x hugs back x men can be such assholes sometimes, good on ya for completing uni through all that! Exams etc are stressful enough without added pressure. I reckon he just didn't know a good thing when he had it x

Hi I'm Lyssie and I'm 19, starting an access to HE nursing course, TOMORROW. I'm really nervous but my dream is to be a nurse so I'mma stick it out =D My main goal is to be a theatre, scrub nurse so I'll be doing an Adult Nursing Diploma at university. I hope to go to either King's College uni in London or Surrey Uni in Guildford.

Lyssa xx

Hey Lyssa, first days can be terrifying, but its usually orientation, introduction to the course and a time to start making friends. So don't be scared, it'll be fab x

Hehe, thankies. I am excited really, just a little nervous as I have hardly been in proper education since I was 16. So I am reading a nursing book to help me understand all the procedures and stuff. It's really interesting :-)

hey lissa

good luck with your course - if you need help ypu know where we are

Thank you so much, it means a great deal to me :-) xx

*hugs everyone*

I started my nursing degree in February, but due to my CRB check not coming back in time, i had to defer my course after the first 8 weeks, so i restarted my course last week.

I applied to do my training nearly 4 years ago now, and have reapplied every year, ive always got through the interviews just fine, but this is the first time ive passed occy health.

I dont know how i feel about it, ive wanted this for so long, and then i finally got in properly and then i had to defer, i just feel like ive got no motivation for it any more.

I just dont know what else i would do with my life, caring for people is the only thing ive ever really done as a job, and i dont have A levels or anything.

Im sticking at it and hoping i re-find my enthusiasm.

Charlie.