Return to Oz

I'm on holidays! Clinicals are over and done with! Until June/July/August that is. I was in community mental health, working close to home (which was good and bad. good because I didn't have to travel far and I knew the area, which made it less stressful. bad because I knew a couple of the clients of the clinic personally, and others I now see around, and it was harder to seperate professional from personal) and I had a really good three weeks.

Community Mental Health was so different from what I was expecting or prepared for. Our lectures in the three weeks leading up to these clinicals had focused on the experiences of working in mental healh hospitals, which is where a lot of my friends ended up but there was nothing about working in community mental health and I didn't quiet know what to expect. I was placed under a state area (there is north, west, south, east and the north eastern, north western, inner west, south eastern ect) and in a hospital in that serviced that area in an acute sense, it also coorinatored the communinty programs within that area (confused?). I was placed with seven other nursing students and we got to choose our placements - everyone else was being all hesident so I took charge (as I tend to do when being are being BORING) and battled the other confident terror-in-training over which one of us got to do CATT (crisis assesment and treatment team) which is all the high flying action stuff and CCT (continuing care team) which is about case managing people in the community. I ended up going CCT because it what I am most interested in, plus it was closer to home.

CCT was awesome and interesting but fully terrifying; I got to give injections, sit in on clinical reviews, work with nurses, doctors and social workers, write in client files and go on some home visits and visit the inpatient unit. I also spent a lot of time sitting around doing nothing, not seeing many clients, reading the same drug infomation again and again, sitting in on endless meetings about new reporting programs that were going in (they are putting it all on the computer for digital files and the concepts were harder for the non computer people to understand).

I'm typing on my laptop, which is driving me nuts because it keeps deleting what I'm writing, so I'm not going to type much more - also I'm not even sure what I want so say, the experience was full on and so much happened. Also client confidentuality. 

But its over and I got awesome marks and comments, I now have down three clinical placements where I got good results and a high distinction average on exams - seriously if this does not get me a place in sweden I'm quiting uni and becoming a club singer at a sleazy place at the docklands. 

Which bytheway my uni is driving me nuts - last year it was looking so easy! the international advisor had it all planned out, she was going to do it all! and she was so enthusatic about it. then she left. and now the new advisor has NO IDEA and also doesn't know how to use email, I've emailed him twice in the last two weeks and he hasn't replied. I need an apointment with him so he can give the go ahead for it all to go ahead! gah! I only have until June 30th for ALL the paperwork to be in! The closing deadline is stressing me the fuck out! I went to this uni because of the international opptunities it offered me and now its screwing me about!

Okay I have to stop thinking about this because its just pissing me off! seriously bed time - well numb3rs watching time anyway.