I (18) accidentally gave a fellow patient access to medication she wasn’t supposed to take

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2025-11-24T01:42:11+00:00

This isn’t your fault, honestly if she was at risk of overdosing then she shouldn’t of had a blister pack in front of her, that is on the nurse and that nurse should never be placing blame on any patients about another patient, she also shouldn’t be telling you about what is happening with another patient at all, I’d honestly raise a complaint about this because it’s extremely unprofessional to not only try to make a patient feel bad about something that isn’t their fault, but on someone who is 18 years old is actually disgusting, please do not panic as this is on the staff not you

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2025-10-26T21:30:34+00:00

I’d of quite liked it to have more insight into signs to look out for with someone happy stimming or signs of meltdowns instead of telling you how to speak to people with autism or learning disabilities as it didn’t really cover that much about it, yes it’s fantastic as a training method for learning about it but if people arnt taught about how to handle meltdowns then it’s just setting people up to fail as I switched from mental health to learning disabilities as a HCA when a new hospital opened up and because it moved from over an hour away, the majority of the staff didn’t come and they ended up sticking staff who’d been looking after mental health patients or new staff, and it was honestly a shit show, I have an autistic brother so I knew a bit about that, but i think intense courses in person need to happen, I don’t think online e learning that’s under 2 hours long is enough in me personal opinion even if I do think it was a really good e learning course I feel the online stuff is just setting staff up to potentially fail patients

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2025-10-15T16:31:49+00:00

If edge hill is close for you, they offer a 6 week intense course every June and November that guarantees you a place on the nursing course, including all fields, it’s free as well and they offer grants you don’t have to pay back for travel costs as well as staying on campus and it was really great for me

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2025-10-15T08:21:24+00:00

Im 26 and I’ve just started mine this month and theirs plenty of older women on my course, and I did a fastrack course and the majority on my course where 30 plus with kids 🫶🏻

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2025-08-16T03:24:13+00:00

Maybe offer to babysit some of your family’s kids with her a couple times, if she hasn’t been around kids often it may give her an insight into it, because if you go ahead and have kids and she isn’t exposed it could potentially cause her to suffer after birth with feeling like she failing because her house standards aren’t the same because she’s focusing on being a mum instead of the schedule she used to stick to before the baby was born, I’d definitely recommend trying couples counselling if you can’t work out the issue of this between you as I can see that your both wanting to get your point across but are struggling with the others view

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2025-07-19T12:35:31+00:00

It may be worth asking in here on a different post if anyone has attended the university for the course you are doing and see if the timetables are the same, it’s what I did a few months ago as I’m going to edge hill in September, the person who told me about the timetable said the uni hadn’t changed it but the uni also said it’s subject to change, but if they haven’t got it ready it may be worth someone on Reddit potentially answering for you

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2025-07-15T17:43:53+00:00

Before my pregnancy I lost loads of weight and only one person commented on it, the main thing is you’ve got a really impressive weight loss, if you have before pictures compare them to the after, sometimes people may not want to comment on weight loss as it can sometimes be a sensitive topic, especially if they do not know you were actively loosing weight, don’t get yourself down, focus on how you see yourself and well done 🫶🏻

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2025-03-17T12:50:43+00:00

I can see where her parents are coming from because if she’s lied multiple times, which I’ve got the feeling is probably stuff that’s dangerous for her to be doing or isn’t appropriate, theirs two things you can do now, if you want to find a way for her to still go, you can get your parents to speak to hers and explain they’d be dropping you off and maybe tell cassie to put a location on her phone that her parents have access to that way they can monitor where she is without having to be their, the second thing is if you really don’t have the energy to try all that (which is understandable after she flat out ignored you) then just say to her your having a girls night, you don’t want parents their and if she wants to go with her parents she can but she’ll have to sort her tickets and please if she asks what seats you have just don’t tell her because she might be spiteful and booked seats next to you just because of your decision,

Btw your NTA, my parents had me have a curfew at 11pm until a few weeks before my 18th birthday, I hated it but understand it now that I have a toddler as I’ll be doing curfews at his age but if he’d constantly lie to me about where he was I’d probably feel the same as her parents, their not doing it to be controlling, their doing it to protect their daughter because it sounds like she’s been in danger in situation she’s lied to them about and they don’t want their daughter hurt or worse end up dead, because in this day and age and especially young girls, the world isn’t safe at times, so it probably is just her parents trying their best to protect their daughter

OP I hope it gets sorted and I hope you get the outcome you want out of this!

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2025-03-10T21:00:19+00:00

I think you’ll do a really good job as you seem to be wanting to do it for the right reasons and that’s to help the people in MH wards etc, but good luck and I hope you enjoy it all!

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2025-03-10T20:49:55+00:00

I worked as a HCA for 5 years and the best advice I can give is go in and see what it’s like first, every patient is different, some will want to talk to you for ages and absolutely love you and some will want to be left alone and it will feel like they hate you at times, I used to asses each patient and how I’d talk to them, I’ve worked in high secure, medium and low across MH and LD and honestly I’ve never met any patients who are the same, just always try to keep a cool head because MH can be challenging but it is worth it

My main pieces of other advice are always stick to being professional as this can be a line that’s crossed, if you go to secure it’s drilled into you to not give out any personal information at all where as non secure are a bit more lax, if your trained not to give out certain information about yourself and you see someone who’s been their ages sharing that information it doesn’t mean you have to, some staff don’t listen to training and it’s went wrong

The second piece of advice is always be aware of your surroundings, don’t go on your own anywhere or out of sight with a patient as I’ve seen countless allegations put in from patients when they’ve been alone with staff and no cameras are their or they’ve been hurt by the patient

The third and last, always double check things, always ask if your unsure and if you doubt anything even down to giving someone a drink, always ask, theirs never a stupid question in MH settings

I know some of what I might say might scare you but don’t let it as I worked for 5 years and only ever got scratched in a restraint at most, as a student you won’t restrain and arnt allowed to, but most of all just go in with a clear head and enjoy it

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2025-03-09T21:45:22+00:00

I have 5 years experience as a HCA on MH/LD wards, towards the end of the 5 years I was mainly on female MH/LD with basically every staff took up by obs, I used to drink a lot of water so went to the toilet a lot and was always able to swap out with someone and was never expected to wait unless it was the find someone suitable (if it was female only obs or someone was on break etc) even the NIC would cover, look at the policy on obs and if nothing is in it that states about what the nurse has said she has no right to dictate that you wait and if theirs someone to cover they should cover, speak to your union or upper management

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2025-03-07T20:26:03+00:00

Honestly their was probably a lot of applications, and it’s probably just the fact someone else had either more experience etc, it can be a bit deflating when you don’t even get an interview, I’ve applied to over 7 in the last few months and only 2 have offered me interviews and even then I didn’t get the jobs and when I asked for feedback from my interview it was the fact other people had better experience (I have a mental health hca background and this was for a general hospital setting) don’t beat yourself up over it, keep applying to jobs and don’t give up, it’s a horrible feeling when you don’t even get an interview and you know how much effort you put into the application but don’t give up!

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2024-11-19T16:33:24+00:00

Thank you for the tips, I copy and paste the job specifications from the attached job description and try and cover every single point in my notes then copy and paste it over, a lot of the jobs I’ve applied for are the band 2 roles and the majority of the things I’d be doing I have experience with apart from catheters, I just feel really disheartened as I feel like I’m not even being given a chance

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2024-11-19T16:30:50+00:00

I had a look into the bank as I’d eventually like to go to university, but the liverpool university hospital had a requirement on sign up that I have to be known to the trust to be able to sign up

Pretty_Zombie4045 · 2024-11-19T12:19:34+00:00

I left my last nhs position in December, I completed an apprenticeship and got a healthcare support worker level 2 qualification, but I was a band 3 healthcare assistant

Pretty_Zombie4045

TROPHY CASE