Student blogs

In the second semester of our second year of midwifery we have a General Clinical Placement (GCP) where we work in different areas of the hospital. GCP lasts for 10 weeks, between February and May. I had placements in Outpatients, A&E, Theatres, Recovery, Paediatrics, Gynae and Medical. I saw some amazing things and worked with some lovely nurses during this time. Having never worked in a hospital prior to starting the course I found GCP particularly useful for acquiring new skills and improving basic nursing skills I've already learnt on skills days. There were bits I loved like meeting all the cheeky kids on the paediatric ward and chatting to elderly patients on the medical ward about anything and everything! Of course there were some bits I hated but overall I think it was a good experience.

Most of the patients I met found it very amusing that they were being looked after by a student midwife - especially the men! But everyone was so lovely and encouraging about it. I witnessed some fantastic and inspiring care from nurses, doctors, healthcare assistants and anaesthetists who were so good with patients. I met a variety of people all in hospital for different reasons and I felt privileged to be part of their care. GCP has made me feel more confident in my skills as a trainee healthcare professional which can only be a good thing!

For the parts of GCP I didn't like so much I figured that the reason it is part of the course is to make sure we all stick with midwifery!! Towards the end of the 10 weeks, I was itching to get back to maternity and was happy to learn that my first placement back would be on the delivery suite. I worked a night, which I finished off with a lovely birth right at the end of the shift and I got the awesome tingly feeling in my stomach when the baby was born. The atmosphere was so special and I left the shift feeling elated. It felt like coming home after the long nursing placement! I hadn't realised just how much I'd missed midwifery and was happy to realise that I hadn't forgotten everything in the 10 weeks I'd been away. Obviously I am learning things!

In other news...! Second year is heating up. Two assignments, one OSCE and one written exam are all yet to come. So many dates with the library and some serious knuckling down is needed. It's a lot of work, especially being on placement too but it's good - I like being busy and I like the challenge. It makes the days off and the weekends you get to go back home even more sweet. Still can't believe I am over half way through second year, so over half way through the course! Anyway, back to the grindstone - I have an essay to write!
Sophie xx

I'm sat writing this in my last drama rehearsal before my last ever exam at 9am on Monday morning! We're having a break, I'm not skiving I promise! Over the past two weeks I have completed all of my exams and handed in all of my essays. I'm looking forward to finishing on Monday as this module has been quite stressful, and the dance staff have organised a graduation boat party for us, which we're all really excited about.

But I can't help looking back over the past three years and feeling really nostalgic. My degree seems to have gone so quick, and as I am awaiting my results to find out if I have a definite place on my postgraduate course, the immediate future seems fairly uncertain for me. Which as an organised person, panics me a little!

Some of my friends are moving back to their hometowns, some are going travelling and the rest of us are still unsure, which is all quite emotional as we've shared the past three years together. I'm sure a few of you are feeling very similar as you prepare for exams, results, and moving on to university.

In this blog I just wanted to emphasis that even though you are all probably sick to death of revision, to continue to work hard in this final push. Also to make the most of your final college days, do something with your friends and family to celebrate the end of exams and begin to look forward to what lies ahead for you in September.

When it comes to results, don't panic if you haven't achieved what you needed for your first choice, often universities will accept you if your results were very close and there's also your insurance choice or the option of going through Clearing to find another university place. We spend so much time worrying about options and our future, as long as we all work continuously hard throughout our exams, I'm sure things will work out for the best!

Good luck!!

Recently I have been reminded of the struggles I had with myself and with my friends over coming to university; And there are probably many of you out there right now going through the same thing: being torn between the world you know so well and the world you want to be a part of.

When I look back on home, I love home. I don't think of it as a deprived area, as an unlucky place for me to have grown up in. I quite like my home town, I loved my school, I loved the places I hung out as a teenager and I never felt like I was missing out on anything.

So a little background about me. I am from ‘the home of the British Army,' Aldershot in Hampshire. My mum's parents ended up here because of the army and my dad was from Northern Ireland and a soldier. My mum struggled to bring up three girls in a council house and my dad was useless in and out of work. Now I can appreciate how difficult it was for my mum but then I had no idea of why I could never have that wendy house I really wanted or the expensive trainers. I didn't feel poor, but I suppose we were. After speaking to my mum she said the income was just about matching the outgoings.

My sisters are a bit older than me, the eldest went straight in to work and left home. The next got pregnant at 17 - the same as my mum. There wasn't such thing as pocket money and I got my first job at fourteen. This was how it was and I never thought that it wasn't enough. Aldershot was home and I fitted in there nicely.

All this information becomes relevant when I started college, when I felt inadequate to everyone in my class. The sixth form is apparently one of the best in the country. In the same town as two private schools, that had pupils who wanted to go to that sixth form. I was left lost. Most people from my school dropped out even before the first year had finished and so I just felt alone. That's when I felt like university wasn't for people like me. I was in chemistry classes with people who wanted to be engineers and laughed at me for wanting to be a teacher. I would hide where I lived and what school I went to from people because they would always make a joke or pity me. I had always felt so safe in my surroundings at school, always wanting to stand out and be someone and suddenly I just wanted to blend in. Those feelings nearly stopped me coming to Kingston. The first time I applied to uni I declined all my offers. Luckily for me I had a brilliant mentor at my job on my gap year who gave me so much confidence, that I took the leap and never looked back.

Then I got caught up between what I wanted and where I came from. By even wanting to go to uni I became to my friends, the people I disliked at college. They thought I thought I was better than them, more important than them, ‘special'!! I think less than fifteen people from my year at school have gone on to uni. One has gone to Oxford and another is even training to be a vet.

Some of these people have cut themselves off from home, they have no desire to look back. I couldn't be one of them, Aldershot will always be who I am and I never want to change that. I'm so lucky that I always had my mum there behind me pushing me, I can't imagine what it is like for some people who don't even have their parents support. I can only say to people have faith in yourself, it is worth doing. University isn't just for ‘posh' rich people. It is for people who have a dream job in mind, people who have an ambition, a goal, and an interest in something. It isn't the be all and end all to be happy but no one should ever feel that they aren't good enough to go.

I lost some friends when I decided to come here and I'm slowly building bridges with the good ones again. Many people back home have negative thoughts about university but I've learnt to let them just wash over me. I'm proud of myself, I'm not doing this to be better than anyone or to prove a point, I'm doing this because the subject amazes me and one day I might be able to do something with it.