Pressure Sores

I had just finished my clinical placements yesterday at the Brain Injury Ward at Liverpool Hospital. The 3 weeks to Liverpool Hospital required me to wake up at 5am each morning, change trains 3x and cost me 60 dollars in travel overall.

In terms of experience it was very rewarding. I got to see many different patients admitted for different reasons, and I have definitely increased my range of nursing skills. I saw many patients in near- vegetative state - some of who were admitted via motor vehicle accidents and some were admitted through assaults.

I felt a bit sorry for some of the patients I had to take care of; in particular, a boy who turned 18 yesterday. He was admitted for driving a car into a tree and had serious injuries to his head. From what I can see, he will never regain motor skills and strength to the left side of his body ( thus making him semi-hemiplegic) and his cognitive abilities will be reduced tremendously due to the amount of compensation of the brain. Yesterday while I was dressing him up, I saw a note on his table. Written messily on the paper by pencil was a message to his mother. It said "Dear Mother, I really love you. I miss you so much. How is everybody? I really love you."

The mother rarely visited this patient. I do not know the reason, but it really touched me to see his letter. Because of the mistake he made, he will be forever confined to a wheelchair and never be able to meet his full potential.

It still angers me to still see all the hype in driving fast cars via commercials and movies. This is what happens when the media is used in the wrong way. People get influenced and scenarios like this happens. Cars are made to transport people from one place to another, not to permanently paralyse people.

I have gotten one of my essays back, and the mark I got was record breaking low. I got exactly 15/30. The reason was because I used the word "mankind". Apparently it was a sexist term and she happened to be a real feminist. My friend's essay was literally scribbled over with corrections and all sorts of horrible comments but he got 17/30. I need to get 21/50 to pass this stupid subject now. It's a bit stressing because I've never needed such a high mark for the final exam to PASS a fricken subject; since I usually accumulate enough marks in my essays.