Under Pressure

Well it's the middle of the second week back and already I'm feeling the pressure. The difference between the workload in the first year compared to all of what we have to do and the things we need to know and learn is a little overwhelming to say the least. Or at least from my perspective anyway. I have had a headache for three days straight now and although I have a bad neck which is probably not helping, I'm sure that some of it is due to stress.

I would be okay if it was just the prep work for lectures and practicals and all usual the reading/note taking around the subject. Even though this year there is a hell of a lot of it I could cope if it was just that....it is all these presentations we are having to do that is finishing me off, the first of which is tomorrow. We are doing them as a group and it is only for 10 minutes yet every time I think about it it puts the fear of god into me!!

Our presentation has already been physically put together and I actually enjoyed that part, getting to work with people who I wouldn't usually have the chance to. It went pretty smoothly and wasn't half as awkward as I expected it to be. With most of my group living a long way from campus we haven't had the opportunity to meet up and practice but as we had no lectures today my plan was to have a bit of a practice of it at home in front of my boyfriend. I was also going to do some other bits of uni work but I've been that stressed with it all I've literally frozen not been able to do anything yet so I'm a bit upset with myself :-(

Even my usual tricks to keep myself nice and calm haven't helped and I have been wondering if and how I am going to get through the rest of the year if I'm going to feel like this all the time. I hadn't doubted myself about taking this path until this past week but I am seriously beginning to wonder if I will make it. Deep down I know I would never give it up as I genuinely love it, but you know how it is when you have had a bad few days and have been under the weather. I love the uni, the lectures themselves, the teaching staff are great and most of all I enjoy placement which is what it's all about really. I can't wait to get back there in fact. Since starting 2nd year I have discovered I definitely prefer being on placement than in uni whereas last year I probably liked them equally.

Anyway, I have been feeling a bit better about it as the day has gone on, and truthfully I will just be glad when tomorrow is over with. I have always had a fear of public speaking but as I'm getting older it seems to be getting worse not better. Going to relax for the rest of the day and spend an hour or so before bed having a practise and boring my bf to death but I'm sure I'll feel better after that. Wish me luck, I daresay I'll be back tomorrow with an update. Let's hope it's a good one!

First week back....oh the joy!

Well thought I'd come and update this while I remembered. This was my first week back at uni after five weeks off for summer. They went by so fast and I must admit that I didn't feel ready to come back again, let alone for the start of a new year. I didn't really feel like I'd rested and recovered from a hectic first year which hasn't been helped by the fact that I've had the cold from hell the past 10 days so end of my hols ended on a bit of a low. Anyway, enough grumbling already!

So as I was saying....this week we were in Monday to Thursday for anyone who is wondering what the timetable might be like. Two full days and two half days. Personally, I feel like they are throwing us right in at the deep end now and I get a strong feeling that last year was a walk in the park compared to what's coming. For the most part it has just been an introduction to the modules and the content we will be covering and how it's all going to be assessed. So far, presentations seem to be a real strong theme coming through and to be honest they are my worst nightmare so I have felt a bit stressed this week to say the least just getting to grips with what is going to be expected of us this year.

Despite the stress and the whinging though I have to say that I am still enjoying it and glad I did the course. I think it has just been a shock to the system. There is quite a lot of anatomy and physiology this year and it looks like we will be covering all of the body systems in quite some depth as well as looking more closely at pathologies and case studies. All pretty intense stuff at first glance but it's the kind of thing I love learning about so I don't mind too much. On top of this there is the usual content relating to the technology of digital imaging and the ethical stuff which is not always the most exciting of subjects but has to be done. I am feeling a lot better about the prospect of the second year today since we have had the day off and I've got myself in gear. Blitzed the study so I could get myself in the right mindset and into some kind of order and started thinking about the elective placements that we have to do in the second and third year.

We got told about these at the start of the week. Four weeks have been allocated where we are able to arrange our own placements at other hospitals. So I have been organising that today and it looks like I have organised two out of the four weeks so far and have a good idea where I would like to spend the other two weeks. I'm just waiting for confirmation of a few things before I can hopefully get the other two weeks sorted on Monday. So that has got me really excited about everything again and I feel raring to go.

I had hoped to spend a bit of time reading and writing up one of the body systems today as well but time got away from me and it is Friday evening now after all so not much hope of me doing that this evening. I'm having a nice quiet weekend and plan to keep on top of the uni work this year so I will get that work done over the weekend as well as some work on CT applications and principles which we have had lectures on this week. This year we are looking at the principles and applications of the various imaging modalities so that should be quite interesting once we get going with it all. Oh....and there is the first of many dreaded presentations to prepare for :(

Think that is enough for now but hopefully that gives you an idea of the sort of thing to expect. Any questions or anything you want included I will do my best. Enjoy the weekend :)

End of first year - wow!!

Well once again I've been very slack in keeping this up to date. Since I posted on here last I have completed my 6 week placement, passed my clinical assessment and am currently enjoying the last few days of my summer holiday. For the clinical assessment we had to be assessed on six different examinations/patients. I can't believe that come Monday I will be a second year student radiographer. It's a slightly scary prospect because I know it's going to start getting pretty tough and I know once I'm back that's it until Christmas.

This year there is a lot more placement compared to last year where we did just 12 weeks of placement. I think it pretty much will alternate between placement and uni in blocks of 3 or 4 weeks which is going to be pretty hectic!