Nurse in the making

Since starting my Bachelor of Nursing in January I've had my head down in my books and my hands full trying to keep up with things to do on the farm.

I'm happy to tell you that at least one of those is going well. To date the worst result I've had back from my exams has been an A and the best an A+. As far as the farm goes, I'm just about able to keep up with the critical things but could do with help with the firewood and a few other little things.

At the moment I'm out on placement in a private hospital and am working mostly with people in palliative care but also with people with both physical and mental disabilities.

As you can see when I'm in my uniform I almost look like I know what I'm doing. That aside there are two and a half more years to go before I can graduate. When that happens I still need to sit one last exam set by the Nursing Council of New Zealand and when I have passed that I'll become a NZ Registered Nurse.

I still won't be quite out of the woods yet because I then have to do a six month "transition to practice" before I can consider my employment options and start repaying my student loan. Of course that will also be the time to decide if I want to go on with my studies and go for a Master's degree and perhaps specialise in a particular discipline.

For now I am concentrating on my studies toward my Bachelor degree. And it is now also time for me to go to the hospital and begin my afternoon shift.