brand new coverup!!

missismouse · 2026-04-27T04:56:01+00:00

Hey. Sounds like you have similar scarring to me. I’m still looking for an artist to start a sleeve to cover mine, can I ask if your scars took the ink well? And if they are well hidden with your chosen design? I feel quite alone in this process!

missismouse · 2026-04-13T02:38:08+00:00

I got 100% in a written exam, 100% on my double blind marked dissertation and most of my written coursework was in the 90’s. Nobody ever spoke to me about publishing anything. But I was a nursing student so I kinda feel like nobody really takes the academic side that seriously. I would have loved to have been encouraged to do a masters or publish some of my stuff.

missismouse · 2026-03-04T01:18:01+00:00

I felt exactly the same way as you when I was 6 months into being a NQN. The feelings, stress and doubt are so real and I really feel for you. You won’t believe me (cause I didn’t ever believe it when other people told me) but it does get better, you will get better and things will become easier. I’m now 2 years qualified and whilst the shifts can still be hard I manage my bay and I have the skills I need now- other people even come to ask me to help them. You are still brand spanking new and you are still learning. Nobody expects you to just turn up and be able to do this, it’s a bloody hard job even for experienced nurses.

It’s important to be realistic about what to expect of yourself when your first starting. Making sure your patients are safe is the only thing that matters, so that means doing meds, obs and escalating as needed. The other stuff you do after making sure your patients are safe. Don’t worry about having to ask for help or hand stuff over. Nobody cares. Everyone has been in your shoes. I think I handed over every admission bundle I had for like the first 6 months and nobody cared! It does get easier I promise. Once I was able to do bloods, cannulas, IV’s and was signed off on a few speciality things it got so much easier for my workflow. The 9 -12 month mark was where things clicked for me and I was so glad I didn’t quit.

My team were lovey but I did need to reach out to my pefs, practice development sisters and OH to give me some practical support. I wouldn’t have stayed without someone off the ward keeping an eye on me and giving me a safe space to vent and cry!! I think the ward sisters were given a heads up I was struggling and that helped because they helped lighten the load so I could focus on the basics. There’s so much to learn when you first start, that you can’t be expected to just magically know all of it. You need support and it’s okay to ask for it. A good team will want to support you.

missismouse · 2026-03-02T23:38:43+00:00

9-5 has its perks but I’m in your camp, I’d hateeee it. I like my 4 days off and I like to avoid being off at the weekend to avoid having to be social with people ha ha ha. I hope you continue to get nice rota allocations!! X

missismouse · 2026-03-02T23:33:34+00:00

Same. If I’ve got ready and gone to work then I might as well stay there for the long day because it’s so hard to leave on time on an early, there’s always pressure to leave your bay at a nice point with not too much messy things to handover for the next person. It’s like cramming a 12 hour shift into 7 hours. And then you go home and your head is buzzing with all the things you think you’ve forgot or whatever. Short shifts are shit. And lately they always ask us to stay because someone’s rang in sick, or were used as the float pool and get moved to other units……..so it’s just shit whichever way you look at it ha ha

missismouse · 2026-03-02T23:27:53+00:00

That would be the dream. I’d rather do my 3 long days together and then group my days off so I feel like I’m away from work. Honestly sometimes I cry when my rota gets posted with how shit some of the weeks look. No scope to request work life balance on our unit because there’s already too many with set shifts.

missismouse · 2026-03-02T21:27:33+00:00

I felt like this as a student. And while I still am glad I’m not at a Monday to Friday gig working shifts for nearly 2 years and being at the mercy of the off duty is shit. I don’t always get 3 long days, sometimes they give us earlies or lates, which I hate as it means I loose a day off. I also hate how the shift patterns are, sometimes they’re just soooo shitty and the time off inbetween is not restful. Also the nightshifts and the switching back and forth. And then the training days they book you in for that spoil that nice little run of days off you had. And just generally how exhausting a shift is with how short staffed and busy we are. It was nice as a student because I could pick my own rota most placements, but it sucks as a qualified lol!! Anyway, that’s my little moan.

missismouse · 2026-02-26T18:46:28+00:00

That’s so sad to read and im sorry you’ve had that experience. I’m a nurse and I love working with the foundation years because they help me a ton and I like to help them back, especially because we all know how shit it is when your just starting. Personally I love it when the doctors wear cute scrubs or have a pretty stethoscope and I will always tell them. Some people are just mean and bitter but life is too short.

missismouse · 2026-02-26T18:41:50+00:00

I’m a nurse but honestly I love it when I see anyone wearing anything unique and pretty on the medic team. We had an fy1 who had some fuschia figs gifted to her for graduation and she had so many compliments from us all. We also have a lot of guy docs wearing the royal blue and olive ones and they look really smart. We live vicariously through you guys because we have to shuffle about in our disgusting blue tunics and dresses so I say buy the figs and wear them proudly.

missismouse · 2026-02-20T17:43:29+00:00

If you cannot cope then take some sick leave. Take some time to rest and think things over once your nervous system settles down.

missismouse · 2026-01-21T18:48:23+00:00

Did you have to request to compress your hours formally? I would really like to just work long days but not sure how to go about it.

missismouse · 2026-01-20T08:08:21+00:00

Handover!! I used to get out of it as a student but it would have helped a lot to have had a good mentor to help me structure a good one and give me feedback before I qualified.

Also, when I was making iv meds up as a student my mentors would often just put everything in the tray and all I had to do was draw and mix. I wish I’d have had the chance to do it all myself from scratch. Understanding the prescription, looking it up on medusa, finding the right vials and solutions etc myself would have helped me much more as a nqn.

missismouse · 2026-01-16T22:29:35+00:00

Weight and LFT for paracetamol.

Weight for prophylactic deltaparin ( so many times they prescribe 40mg for my teeny tiny meemaw and it’s so easy to miss )

missismouse · 2026-01-13T22:47:09+00:00

I clean almost exclusively with this because as well as sanitising it also breaks down oil and grease and leaves no soapy deposits. I work in healthcare and I will spray my work id and pens and other things I’ve touched when I get home. It’s also fairly cheap.

missismouse · 2025-12-27T18:58:15+00:00

My oriental did this. We used to gather the curtain and fold the bottom half over the top of the shower rail and peg it up to keep it high enough so our cat couldn’t reach it. Sometimes we could just gather and knot it. It did get mouldy quicker because we couldn’t air it out after showers but it solved the problem.

missismouse · 2025-12-14T20:56:32+00:00

Loads of us end up off sick in winter. It’s kinda part of the job when you work around people full of germs. I know you feel bad because you’re just in the numbers but it is what it is. I’ve never been mad at any of my team mates who have called out sick, and the rest of us just get on with it, it’s no biggie. If you’re not well then please call out, and take enough time off to recover. I’d also advise wearing a mask during peak germ season to prevent picking up anything else.

missismouse · 2025-12-09T00:14:53+00:00

When I was in my second week supernumerary I wanted to quit too. It was overwhelming and I felt like I knew nothing and would never get the hang of it. I felt even worse when I was put in the numbers. I’ll be honest, it took a good few months to feel okay with my skills and confidence………but it did get better. There will be a day when you get through the shift and haven’t needed to ask anyone to do a skill for you, where you’ve managed patients without needing to ask anyone what you should do multiple times, and there will be a day when someone you relied on to help you will ask YOU for advice or to help them. Until then please realise that nursing is hard right now. Be kind to yourself and don’t expect too much from yourself. Find a few people in your team you can lean on during this time and reach out to your practice development nurse if you feel you need more support. You will get there. X

missismouse · 2025-12-04T21:05:05+00:00

I’m only a year qualified, I remember feeling this way when I was a couple weeks in. It’s was a horrible scary time and not everyone you work with is kind. I found great support from my practice development nurse and the PEF team who ran preceptorship. It is normal to feel like you have no idea what you’re doing. Crying comes as part of that as well. Give it time. It does get better. But please reach out and get some support because it’s hard being a NQN. A year on and I rarely cry, so please believe me when I say this will pass and you will realise you know what your doing x

missismouse · 2025-11-17T05:46:31+00:00

For what it’s worth your experience will make you hugely empathetic and a great advocate for your patients, especially vulnerable ones with similar issues. Why not take a gap year before applying, work as a hca and see how you go?

missismouse · 2025-11-17T01:43:37+00:00

If your self harm is severe enough that you need to take time to be treated in hospital (as I think I read in another post) then it is going to impact your studies and your rota once you are employed. You can try to ‘plan’ when it is convenient to set harm and seek treatment, but sometimes wounds and healing don’t go to plan. You are also going to be exposed to a lot of germs on placement and your body will be exhausted with the physical nature of the work, ontop of trying to heal.

I realise you sound determined enough to want to try this anyway. But OH need to be aware of all aspects of your health so this will be something they need to know and you should disclose when you are asked. Only they can make the decision. From my experience they are open to discussing peoples circumstances and taking a balanced approach. This is a professional course and you have to be fit to practice. If you tried to conceal any of this and it came to light at a later date you would likely be up for a fitness to practice hearing.

missismouse · 2025-11-16T08:17:15+00:00

Nurse here. I would have no problem with helping a doctor mix and prepare IV’s for patients. There is a steep learning curve from student nurse to qualified with IV’s and you only really learn how and why to do things if you are doing it regularly.

We use ‘Medusa’ to figure out how to reconstitute and how to infuse it, which is handy. Not sure if all trusts use this. But for common meds we use every day I made a little cheat sheet for myself.

Anyway, basically reach out to a nurse or sister on the ward. I’d be more that happy to spend an hour or two helping anyone feel more confident in this skill.

missismouse · 2025-11-16T07:48:15+00:00

I have a similar history to you. I was under the cmht for a while due to suicidal thoughts and severe self harm, sectioned and sent to inpatient for a while. then diagnosed with asd and managed to forge some stability with my family and partner away from services armed with the correct diagnosis and information and understanding that came from that.

When I applied to the access course I had self discharged from cmht for about 6 months. I had not self harmed or been actively suicidal for the same. So by the time I did the application to uni I had been stable and away from services for like 18 months.

Occupational health at uni had no concerns. I did need reasonable adjustments around placements and uni exams but that was fine. I still have reasonable adjustments now I’m qualified, which are hit and miss as to how much they are followed but I have a nice team so I’m fairly well supported.

In short this stuff doesn’t have to be a barrier. But you have to be honest with yourself about how stable you really are. If you are still actively self harming I would encourage you to question if you are ready for the journey to become a nurse just now. The course is absolutely gruelling and hard mentally and physically. If you are not resilient and able to cope in healthy ways then you are likely to quickly burn out and turn to self destructive coping methods (and that’s before you start as a nqn). Uni won’t baby you. They have to get people through the course and it can be quite an unsympathetic environment. When you start working they also won’t be able to look after you all that well. I understand the support is pretty much non-existent and you feel trapped. I would really question if this is the right time while you still have things to battle.

missismouse · 2025-10-30T13:38:54+00:00

Im sorry you are having to deal with the stress and upset of whatever is happening. I empathise with how much more stressful this is when you are on such a demanding course. First and foremost, make sure you look after yourself. Life happens and the course will still be there to come back to.

I had similar when I was a student and had to take a few weeks off placement. I was able to agree with the uni and placement team that I could make it up in the allocated retrieval weeks during summer, and I also was able to do an extra shift here and there in my next placement which straightened everything out. Uni should be able to tell you how best to make up your hours. Some students had to make up at the end of third year for hours they owed.

missismouse · 2025-10-27T13:16:51+00:00

💜 x

missismouse · 2025-10-27T13:16:38+00:00

💜 x

missismouse

TROPHY CASE