Starting Work, Covid Vaccine and Nature Reserve!

After settling back into my life in Nottingham, I finally started work and even got my Covid-19 vaccine!

Click here to watch the vlog or see below. 

I took a few days at home to relax and truly enjoy being back in my own house, with my own space. It was also nice to be reunited with Luke, but that's come with it's own difficulties. We had a special date day on Sunday to reconnect and I planned some activities to do, after I cooked Sunday lunch. It was very yummy! We've also been watching Cobra Kai and it's been a great series that we've both really enjoyed. 

Of course, the long awaited day came to start work. It was all up in the air for a little bit as I was waiting on different things to come together, but I finally got my induction information on the Thursday, ready to start on the Monday, then got my first month of shifts on Friday. I'm pretty happy with the shifts, but I was defintely a little confused on what was expected of me. I decided to start as a band 3 pre-pin, which is more of a maternity support worker role. 

The first online induction day went well. It took over 9 hours to finish all the packages, and I still have 4 more to do, so will take just under 11 hours to finish all the compliance aspects. The meeting was really informative, and I was glad to hear I wasn't the only one struggling with technological issues. The next day, I headed to another site at the trust to do my ID check, before working my first clinical shift in the afternoon. On the drive back, I called in at Costa and somewhat upgraded my breakfast from the banana I was going to have, to a bacon sandwich for 50%!

So far, the shifts have been good and I've been really enjoying it! It's also a nice introduction as I slowly integrate into the team and get to grips with all the little extras needed that I didn't really get involved with as a student. I've sorted my ID Badge and been upgraded straight from student midwife to midwife, which feels amazing. I'm not hugely happy with my picture because I thought he'd taken it already, but never mind. I only have 5 years with it! I also got to book my uniform appointment and Covid-19 vaccine. 

Friday felt like a crazy day. I enjoyed a lovely relaxing day and then late afternoon, I got my official degree classification which was a first and felt amazing to have everything confirmed! A few hours later, our NMC PIN numbers came through and we were able to pay for memberships. Then we thought it would take 2 to 6 weeks to have everything come through but university confirmed everything from their end straight away, and less than an hour later I was officially a registered midwife. It was amazing! To celebrate, as I was home alone and by myself, I ordered a Zizzi takeaway and it was the best meal I've had in a long time. It was so yummy! 

The next day I got to go to shift and be a qualified midwife and practice as such. It was a really rewarding shift as I started with a postnatal lady and did some paperwork before warding her. Then I looked after a complex induction of labour labourer, and had the most fantastic preceptorship midwife to work alongside. It was a little hectic of a finish at the end, with it being very busy! I felt awful having to leave just before handover, but I had to leave 10 minutes early to get downstairs for my Covid-19 vaccine. I'm going to talk all about my experience with the vaccine soon, but I got rather unlucky with the side effects! 

After a day to recover, I met up with Sam and Vicki at Attenborough Nature Reserve. It was a cold but a refreshing walk, and of course it was lovely to catch up. We walked through the very muddy paths, before switching over to the go through the village, after Sam and I got chased by some swans! I ended up going to the shops to pick up some bits for lunch on the way back, whilst they went to Costa and kindly treated me to my favourite brownie! They were actually having their vaccines straight after so parked at my house before heading in. Then I finished the day with some admin working, replying to emails and planned to do some mandatory training, but didn't quite have enough time.