Breathing Space

I called this post breathing space as that's what I feel I've got at the moment. The first three week block of academic is finished now and this week is my first week at placement. I have a four week block before I'm back a uni again and lucky for me (depending on your point of view) I'm working weekends this week so I've had all week off aside from having to go in yesterday to have a meeting with my clinical tutor to discuss goals for this placement and any issues etc. I also got some new technique cards for this year so that was good.

Technique cards are basically cards that you get signed by the radiographer you are working with when you are able to take an x-ray of a body part, for example, hand, foot, chest etc. Depending on what level they sign you at represents your ability to work independently I guess. They help to give proof at the end of the three years that you are competent and have a wide range of experience. I always like it when there is something specific to work towards as it gives you a bit more direction and purpose. We also talked about the clinical assessments for this year which will be on portables and adapted technique. Apparently in the past there used to be assessments on barium studies but since they are less frequent at my particular hospital there isn't really enough for them to make a full assessment out of it which is fair enough.

Anyway.....breathing space. As you may have gathered from my previous post uni was starting to get on top of me a bit so I was glad to have a week to sort myself out and get my head in gear. I had all these plans of how much work I was going to do and Monday started off according to plan and then I guess I got lazy. It wasn't all bad though. On Monday I managed to do some reading and note taking for one of four presentations I have to do when I'm back in uni next and I also managed to write a rough draft of a letter applying for electives. Tuesday ended up being a sofa day but I made up for it yesterday by getting my letter completed and sent off and even managed a second one so I really hope I get into my first choice. The second letter was kind of a back-up. I do really want to go there but although four weeks of electives sounds like a lot it's not really when there are so many hospitals you want to go to and there's so many things you want to see. I'm really excited about electives and thinking about it helps me keep my spirits up at the moment when all the work that must be put in between now and then seems so daunting.

Thinking about it I have been more productive than I thought this week. Got myself a posh new diary and went through the whole year's lectures and timetable and wrote it up in my diary and year planner so I could clearly see what is coming up in a logical fashion and the first thing I realised is that this year i going to absolutely fly by! We've got the odd reading week here and there to help us catch up on ourselves and ten weeks holiday (two at Christmas, Easter and six over summer) but both the two week hols are probably going to be spent revising for exams and getting coursework written up. It is a lot of work but I really do enjoy it once I get going. I'm just finding the prospect a bit daunting at the moment but I do feel better after seeing my tutor at uni last week. After each block of placement we have meetings with our tutor who checks we are making progress on placement and to see how we are generally getting on with the course.

Trying to think if there is anything else to tell that anyone might be interested in.....uni wise we have just been carrying on with learning about the different modalities and learning about the body systems. I did that presentation, can't remember if I posted since then but I barely made a contribution. I choked but it was helpful just getting up in front of everybody so next time I'm sure it will be a little easier and at least with the assessed ones it is more like a seminar in small groups rather than in front of the masses. We have had a couple of practical sessions in the x-ray rooms as well as a refresher where we have re-visited more difficult projections you might have to do when patients are uncooperative or non-ambulant etc as well as refreshing on more difficult or rarer projections.

So today is my last day to myself before I have eight days straight of placement. I'm in 9-9 tomorrow, Sat and Sun. then Mon - Fri I'm on portables which I'm absolutely hopeless at right now but that's because up til now it's been more assisting the radiographer but the onus will be more on us this time so I'm looking forward to getting stuck in. Over the course of this year we have two weeks on portables before we are assessed around Easter time. My third week on placement I've got a week where I get to spend a bit of time in different modalities such as MRI, mammography, ultrasound and nuclear medicine so that will be quite exciting. Since we have been learning about them at uni this year I have taken a bit of a shine to CT which is good because my last week of this block of placement is in CT. We get one week this year and two weeks in the third year and then I think we are assessed for competency in carrying out emergency head and neck scans. All very exciting stuff! I think the main focus for now is learning and practising the cross sectional anatomy for things like MRI and CT and getting a bit more familiar with other types of equipment.

I think I've probably bored you all enough for one post. It wasn't meant to be so long, but you know me I get carried away. Writing this blog is quite helpful because when I'm feeling a bit out of sorts with it all and worrying about how I'm going to cope with it all I start thinking about what I'm working towards and about placement and it reminds me how much I love it!

Anyway, that's enough for now. I'll try and update at the end of next week.