Spoke placements, spoke in the wheel or spoke in the Works

Firstly, sorry for not posting recently; life has been so very full on of late with preparation for exams and the dreaded ‘D’ word (dissertation). All this on top of the mind blowing whirlwind of emotions involved in attending the Student Nursing Times Awards, trying to find time to write my poetry and attend placement which leads me nicely on to this blog “Spoke placements, spoke in the wheel or spoke in the Works”    

What is a spoke placement?

For those who have not experienced a spoke placement, The NMC Standards for Pre-registration Nurse Education (2010)  argues that a spoke placement allows for a more flexible and innovative approach to practice learning. Spoke placements can last anything from 1 to 4 weeks and works alongside the hub placement. Typically, hub placements last longer, between 4 to 11 weeks, depending on a student’s year of study.  

Positives/Negatives

For me I find anything less than 3 weeks in a placement a wasted learning opportunity, I have seen students have placements that only run for one week and I have had placements that have only lasted two weeks. I feel that placements only lasting two weeks are difficult to get any positive nursing skills out of. 

ECMHTOA: Enhanced Community Mental Health Older Adults (what a mouthful) this is the first of my two spoke placements which lasted 3 weeks. This spoke placement was very definitely a spoke in the wheel it was brilliant. I thoroughly enjoyed my time on placement here. It was a great learning opportunity and, in many ways, a perfect example how a spoke placement should be. I was lucky enough to have two very knowledgeable and passionate mentors but arguably the whole team were like mentors and I found myself wishing I had longer here. I was given strategies to assist me with my dyslexia in writing notes and delivering drugs. For notes I was told to utilise Microsoft word prior to putting them on system which assisted me with spelling. Drug wise I was bought a vile snapper by one of the team to assist in breaking drug vials as this is a cause of anxiety for me. Utilising the tool made the whole process stress and anxiety free. 

Returning back to Uni 

I returned back to university for my second spell of theory in my first semester. This lasted four weeks and included my first exam. The pressure of my Mental Health Viva Exam has caused me no end of worry. It is an oral exam and I find when I’m under pressure I struggle to find the appropriate information and words I want to use.

This year so far has been full on. Prior to going into placement, my cohort only had two weeks in University to transition from year two into year three. I find that the beginning of every year I experience anxiety related to ‘getting my head’ around the course. Due to being faced with so much information in a short space of time.

All photos freely available from https://www.pexels.com 

Next blog: Dissertation time, Exam time, revision time, Strategy time