Part II
This is Part two of the first of a series of interviews with amazing NHS professionals. If you haven’t Read part I, not to worry! You can read it here. If you want to take your knowledge of healthcare to a new level, stand out in your interviews, and find a career you will love then keep reading! This interview will emulate the insight gained on a medical work experience. So enough of my talk, let’s get to the good stuff!
As a follow on from last week’s Part one interview, today we are delving into the rest of the questions I asked the Staff Nurse. Like I said last week if you have had medical work experience in year 12 cancelled, or maybe you are 15-16 and struggling to find healthcare work experience… This is definitely for you!
Again, I’ll make the disclaimer I did last week… Although this can’t replace real work experience, it will give you all the insight into healthcare you need! This is only the first of many, make sure you join the email list to find out when you can hear the rest! Enjoy!
“Work experience for medicine is all about the insight.”
In your honest opinion, how would you describe the relationship doctors and nurses have?
I think it really depends on the character of the Doctor and the character of the Nurse. On my previous ward, the relationships were good; they [ the doctors] were not bossy, they helped and mucked in when needed, but some Wards have a real hierarchy between Nurses and Doctors. The level of experience of the Doctor matters too, the less experience the Doctor has, the more stressful the relationship can be for both parties as sometimes the Doctor may not do something that the nurses are needing of them, or they may not recognise the way things work in that specific ward, and that can be hard. Mostly, there is a good relationship between healthcare professionals, but every now and then there can be issues.
Could you tell me about an experience you have had from which you learned something valuable in being a nurse?
“You can’t hide in the shadows.”
Oh! So many, my intensive care placement taught me to deal with losses and to be professional, yet empathetic. I learned to give the correct communication alongside compassion; it involves being emotional with the patients’ relatives to a certain degree but also remembering to uphold professionalism. I learned how to break bad news but also how to cover it with empathy. I think that we get the opportunity to build these skills quickly. In medicine, it’s usually the consultant or the Registrar that will break the bad news. As a Nurse, it’s you and your mentor. You get the opportunity to break the news and be a practical comforter too, you can’t hide in the shadows.
In your words, how is what you do different from what doctors might do?
I think that nursing is a lot more practical; not necessarily more skillful, but doctors do a lot of high-level procedures and need a lot of training behind the scenes, in nursing, you do everything, for every part of the body, catheters, cannulas, IVs, all of it, every day. Essentially, we do all the things the doctors prescribe, we also know the patients a lot better than the Doctors do.
“You have to be so sure and confident in yourself.”
Every patient is different, you have to be ready to adapt treatment for each person. You have to ensure you don’t give them something their body will reject or can’t tolerate. You have to speak up to the doctors if you don’t agree with the prescription for that specific patient. Obviously, the doctors are happy to assist, but you need to ensure you’ve done everything you can do first. However, they’ll ask why you need them because they are so busy and need to prioritise patient management. You have to be so sure and confident in yourself so that you can ask them whatever you need to.
What is the thing you most enjoy about your job and what is most challenging?
Um… I just love my job! I love Caring for my patients and knowing what I’m doing; in that, I love going into work and being able to say “Yep, I’ve got this, this, this” and doing it. I love knowing what you are doing is all such practical skills that you don’t get in any other profession. It’s life knowledge and not just work knowledge, people get sick outside of work too.
One of the most challenging things is probably conflict, between patients and staff and also between staff members. In situations where the Doctor might say one thing and you say something else to the patient and the family are frustrated and it feels like the relatives hate you and the patient hates you. In situations like this, it’s often the nurses that have to make all the calls and calm everyone down and check everything is okay. Also, Physical and Verbal abuse are very common in the healthcare setting. Not to mention, sexual verbal abuse as well, people will say things like “ I’m glad that you’re treating me today.” or “Can you give me a wash, you’re the hot nurse.” They don’t realise that I didn’t sign up for that.
The funny thing is that I was speaking to a policewoman the other day, and she said that if they are spoken to like that, they have the power to use force and shout back. As Nurses and Healthcare Professionals, we can’t do any of that because we have a duty of care, we often take it on the chin. Most of the time, it’s always us taking the brunt of it. I guess when you go into something like this career you have to do it out of passion and because you want to do the job, it’s a vocation.
What was it like being a student nurse during COVID 19?
Personally, because my area of England wasn’t hit as hard, I had a positive experience. What was hardest was wearing all of the PPE all the time. My skin got horrendous, it was dry and hot and I was tired all of the time. It was sad seeing patients die for no reason other than that they have COVID. However, I have learned so much more than I ever have before. I wouldn’t do it again but I wouldn’t change it at all.
Congrats! You now have top tier insight into life as a nurse. The most important thing to do after any medical work experience is to reflect! Medical work experience and gaining medical insight is everything about the transferable skills and attributes you have developed from it