First Years...come and share your experiences

[JDBfangirl]

College, Uni, OU or anything else. How's it going? The good the bad and the obscure.

I've left my details with a local charity, so could be doing some voluntary work for then They were at uni recruiting.

How is the essay going now Fairlady? You do sound as though you are on the right track so please try not to worry too much. Part of my first essay is "Describe 3 ways that Occupation can promote Health and Wellbeing" and after I had written it, one of the others on my course told me it may be wrong so I know that sinking feeling all too well. I think what you are writing sounds fine - we all tend to doubt ourselves so much don't we? I am going to hand mine in and see what the mark is - after all it could be HER who is on the wrong track and I would be gutted if I followed what she said to do and it was wrong after all.

JDB - yes we had a reflection seminar today and we learnt those models. As part of my IPL I have to write a 1700 reflective essay incorporating ethics, professionalism, communication and anti oppresion. Think I am going to struggle with this one!

Hello! Been a while since I've posted on here. Been so tired lately. Got 3 workbooks to get to grips with and feels like no time at all to be getting them done! Managed to almost complete one (last part I don't understand so need to hunt my tutor down). Second is all in note form so I just need to write up so that'll be okay if I can make sense of my writing! Third is still a mystery to me. Done most part of it (I hope) but need to also find out tomorrow if I'm doing it right.

Notalone - Oh I missed your birthday! Happy belated birthday! Awesome about the cake. Someone had a mate bring them in a cheesecake, which was a lump of cheese cut into a shape of a cake slice with a candle on top. I thought if was hilarious. Will have to try it out... Benefits I'm still waiting to hear from. Wish they'd just let me know!

JDB - Hope everything's okay with your knee. And 3500 word essay I've just completed my 1000 word essay.

LV - did you enjoy your night out? And good luck with the voluntary work.

FreakyLady - Notalone's right. I was so worried I was off the mark, but when I spoke to the tutor he said I was fine, so that made me feel better. And I totally understand that whole wanting to make a good impression on an essay that won't be graded. I've done the same lol.

Hi Mrs Morten...hope you've found DVD remote!

Got half my uniform today (bottom half mainly, trousers and epallettes... still awaiting tunics. Will get trousers washed at weekend.

Half started essay but need to start again. Feeling slightly better about it and may give it another stab at the weekend if I get the chance.

Can't believe its only two weeks till placement. Can't believe its nearly November (and DS's birthday)

Knee is ok, tutor taking stitches out on Monday for me.

JDB, wow, out to placement so soon...but I suppose it makes sense....lol...when I did my nursing we had a 6 week block of theory and then went out on placement....so, that would have been the middle of may ( we had April and September take ins)...
I am sure you will be fine.
As for Uniforms....we all got the right trousers, but they put the wrong tunics in (lovely pale blue tunics that I would much prefer....although not with eh dark green trousers we have to wear, lol)

We just put our choices for placements down, shall be intersting what I get...tbh, I don't really care what department it is, as long as it isn't far away....iykwim...

As for my Essay, thank you for your comments....it's daft really how easy we get unsure....my frined told me that everyone will have their own point of view and how they go about it,m but aslong as you can answer he question you can't have gone wrong....wise words!
Oh and not finished, but planning on finishing it tonight...and proofreading it tomorrow and handing it in on Tuesday.

Notalone, so, what did you write about in that Essay about Occupation and Health? Nosey parker alert....

Mrs Morten, hope you do find them remote controls....what a mare..

Lollipop, we will get a day a week in the third semester for volunteering....am probably going to use it to help out at the schools brandspanking new childrens centre...on the other hand I might see if I could help out at the local Hospice or in the Over 50's Centre on the estate...shall see....

Oh, thinking about something my friend , who does a University course at her local Uni....she told me they can get their assignments proofread by their tutor before handing them in, and the tutor will then give them tips on how they can improve their marks, etc...
I was quite surprised to hear that...and am pretty sure that we don't have that option...do your Unis offer such a service?

FlFAL - I think we are able to do this. I shall soon find out as I'm going to ask my PAT to take a look at it and he'll be the one marking it properly after submission.

Am still worried about amount of words, not even done 500 words yet and seem to have covered quite a chunk. Oh well shall carry on and get some advice... of someone!

hm...you mentioned, quite a few areas you wanted to cover, and if you sort of think of 225 words per paragraph and roughly have 175 for Intro and conclusion (that is roughly 5% of 3500 words, isn't it....my maths are rubbish, sorry) then it's about 8 paragraphs....so, 8 different topics....and I am sure you had about 6 at least you wanted to cover....
OMG...I have lost myself by now...not sure if I am making sense at all....lol....anyway, I am sure you can do this!Some days itr flows better then others....

Hi everyone. How are you all? I started my 1700 word interprofessional learning essay today. It needs to include ethics, anti oppressive practice, professionalism, communication and reflection on learning. Am about half way through and so far its not been as bad as I was expecting. Am really peed off though because we have a group task too where we had a research article to examine and have to answer some questions on it. There were 9 of us and 10 questions so I did two questions and another girl is collating it. Anyway the deadline is Friday and 3 of the group have gone awol and are not responding to emails etc so this means I may fail my first assignment because of them as we all need to take part. I sent an email yesterday to everyone asking if they have any difficulties then they should at least let us know and I copied the lecturer in too so at least he knows some of us have done it but it makes me so bloody mad that people can be so selfish. I don't care if they fail as they can't be bothered so they will get out what they put in but to put everyone else at risk of failing is just

Rant over! Fairlady - in the health essay I wrote about cognitive improvement, ADL's, independence and social / community inclusion. Hope I am on the right track. Are you feeling a bit better about your essay now? Have you got the right uniform now?

JDB - how did the stitches removal go? Where are you going on placement and how do you feel about it?

Hey Tammybear . How are ya?

We started anatomy today and all I can say is . I DON'T GET IT!!!!

Notalone....sounds definetely o.k. to me....makes complete sense, to me, anyway ...if that is any help!

As for how I feal about my own essay....well....I will find out soon how it went, and am now trying NOT to think about it anymore...as can't change anything anyway....
What a pain in the arse about the group work and some not putting the work in/being uncontactable...that is crap...hope all pans out...and that you don't fail because of them...that is the bad thing about group work isn't it....I mean, what are you meant to do if they don't reply?
I suppose, the remaining members of the group could maybe prepare the things those not replying were responsible fro, just incase?

Well....you know JDB, I think it was, mentioned those concepts of reflections, and mentioned some names? Could you say the names again...think I might have to research them....
tried to find them by scrolling back, but can't find the post

Well, tomorrow we should find out which places we got for our first placements and probably will find out about the exhibition piece...i.e. the rules and regulations, etc.....whilst it said a multimedia piece...it seems it has to be something like a poster anywway......hopefully it doesn't have to be a poster, as I am thinking of doing a galaxy style thing, I would love to do a mobile thing....but we will see...eh....
and with that p[iece we also have to do a reflective diary and then write 1200 words of our reflective expeirence, backing it up wiht relevant literature....
notalone, do you do something like that....the theme is exploring yourself as a Occupational Being from infancy to now...

Ah bless ya Fair lady. I hope its ok. Most of the others have (finally!) come back now in relation to the group work. Well they are promisng they will do it anyway. whether they will or not . I am getting a bit aarrgghhh atm too as I usually do my assignments as early as I can to get them out of the way but am finding that I keep getting handouts afterward from the books I have referenced. For example I spent most of Sunday reading a book on Client Centred Practice and got some fab quotes from it which I used as part of my assignment. Today we got given a powerpoint handout with a lot of the info I sourced myself so part of my assignment now looks as though I have just copied the handout. Really annoying! When do you guys do your assignments and do you think it is best waiting until near deadline after all?

We are not doing the exploring ourselves as an Occupational Being at all so far. Our courses seem to be very very different so far unless we are just doing them in a different order. How exciting about placements though! What type of placement are you hoping for? We got an email through asking if any of us want to do forensic and one of the placements is in Rampton, housing the likes of Ian Huntley and Beverly Allitt. I don't think I could handle that sort of placement yet so fingers crossed I don't get sent there. You will have to post as soon as you know where you are going!

FlFAL - Bortons, Johns, Gibbs. If you google them esp on google scholar you should get some helpful stuff.

Essay is painfully slow going. Am nearly at 1000 words but I know I'm going to come in under the word limit. Just going to keep plodding onwards and sort it out at the end.

Knee fine. Tutor said it was healing nicely. It held out during aggression of management session (It's not everyday you are allowed to hold your tutor by the throat pinned to a wall )which was really really good. Also did CPR (bloody hell thats harder than it looks!). Can't believe only one week till placement. Still haven't got tunics for uniforms and need to call for off duty tomorrow.

Hope everyone is getting on ok with their assignments etc.

How annoying Notalone....
well...usually Assignments seem to relate to the things you do in lectures and seminars, etc....so, in a way it might be worth waiting a while before completing it, etc... although, obviously not so good to wait to last minute....I would say, try to get the assignment completed and possibly handed in a few days before deadline, if you can....

My Placement is the most local one....it's in the local Community Hospital and it's working with elderly...at the moment I have no idea if it is adaptations or not...shall find out, I suppose.

When will you have your first Placement?

And indeed our courses are very different....we were told that our course is the first one held in this format in teh UK...we are guinnepigs....lol....apparently in the past students felt it was far to theoretical and not practical enough...so, they changed it all around....
must admit, Human Health, whilst very interesting, is far to short a module....But I suppose it's one of those where you can look a lot of things up....
thanks to athems we have access to anatomy tv which looks wicked...and we will go, in our term after placement, to Leicster Anatomy Hall...to look at things for real...looking forward to that!

JDB, thank you...and indeed I have heard of them...but we didn't really talk to much about who...more about general reflection models....which is possibly why I didn't realise the names you mentioned were the ones we looked at....
I gonna have our Basic Lifesupport session next wendesday (that is what they call our First Aid/CPR course) and in a few weeks time I have my Breakaway training...which looks very much like the Teamteach course I have taken part in recently....

That is probably a better idea Fairlady. It is really annoying when you do so much work only to find the book has been summarised anyway.

Are you happy about your placement? It sounds good and its fab that its local. When do you go? We do 6 weeks starting Jan 5th but don't find out where we are going for weeks yet. I hope I get a local one too. The anatomy Hall sounds brilliant - we are doing anatomy at the moment and it is really challenging. Some people are really enjoying it but I am not finding it easy at all. On the other hand I found clinical reasoning easy whereas others really struggled. Swings and roundabouts I guess. How are you with anatomy?

How are you feeling about placement JDB? Glad your knee is getting better slowly. where are you going on placement btw?

Fairlady, glad you'd heard of them and that its all becoming clearer now!

My placement is on a urology/vascular/bit of everything ward at local hospital. I've been and had a look around, met a couple of the staff. I've got my shifts for first week (different one everyday but at least am off at the weekend!). I'm looking forward to it, sooner I get stuck in, the sooner I'll learn.

Nothing more done on essay as have family visiting this weekend for DS's birthday. Am going to try get as much done next week as possible. 2500 words to go!

notalone, I am happy about the placement....it was my first choice (mainly due to being local...but, I think it will be a good first placement )
It will start in January...but because my placement (iirc) is a parttime one, Iit will be longer in weeks...to make the right amount of hours up....)
The full time placements are "shorter" and you have a studyweek before and after....
it's great that it is organised like that, as that way a full time student can do a part time placement and vice versa...!

As for anatomy...well, I suppose I do have the benefit of having done it when nusing...so, many things are coming flooding back....! The teaching is great, the way they make it relevant to OT....just wish it was a bigger module, going more into depht, because in the end you have to know how htings are meant to work in order to know when they don't...iykwim.
Search out anatomy tv...I assume you have a athens log in....it really is great stuff

jdb, hope the essay is coming along nicely!

Need a kick with my 2 essays. Due in in Dec and not even done the research/watched the films. Not been posting much as having group problems and the deadline for the films is MONDAY! HELP!

Hello! Been ages since I've posted lol.

Ooo JDB and Freakylady! Already got your placements sorted, that's cool.

Good luck with everyone's essays!

I had a project due in yesterday, another one due in next week, then I need to get started on 3 others that are due in beginning of Jan! So hectic it's unreal sometimes. I went to Uni on Sunday night to print some of my work out cause my printer's died, and was there til 11pm! Was really weird!

Although I've been getting annoyed with my class. I mean they're lovely people, but so lazy when it comes to work. I've spend weeks doing my project for yesterday, and still had last minute things to do in the morning. About 6 of them started the work over "half term" and 2 of them started it the day before it was due in. Is it just me that's really concerned about doing as well as possible? Lol.

tammy, you will be having the last laugh....tbh, if others put the work in or not will only bother me if I am effected...i.e. it's groupwork...otherwise....it makes no difference to me....

Lollipop, which movies do you have to watch?

We have study week this week, but had some madatory training (Basic Life support) today and in the afternoon we had a guest lecturer over giving a talk about governance in mental health....so, my friend and I stayed on for that....and it was really interesting.

Thats fab Fairlady about the placement being perfect for you. We won't find out for a while yet apparently but I am counting on being close to home. We have a chance to go to South Africa in our final year for 3 months too but I won't be doing that lol as much as I would like to. I do have access to anatmoy TV but haven't looked at it yet. I will need to as we had anatomy again today and I was still

Tammy - ikwym about group work as I had the same thing in my interprofessional learning group. It is so frustrating. Have things improved at all?

How is your placement going JDB?

Lollipop - sounds as though you have been having a mare. What been going on with your group?

Oh lots of things been going on, but all sorted now

I've got to watch Metropolis for one essay, then watch The Queen and Bend it like Beckham for the other. Metropolis is hard going lol

I don't know...Lollipop...sounds tough having to watch movies ....we have to do somehting like that over the semester holidays next year, in preparation for the 2. year....well, books and movies...

Notalone...in the 2. year we could get placement in Canada, Denmark, Germany, etc...but I doubt I will be able to do that...not sure about the 3. year placement...

HI again, I take it everyone is very busy studying
Well...have started on my Occupational Being Project...changed my mind about what I will do.....originally I wanted to d Planets...but that kinda didn't make sense after getting the proper brief...so, than I thought of doing my Star constellation (Leo)...but realised that would limit the limited space even more, lol...than I thought of a flag theme...what with me being german and all that...but that, I felt was a bit boring...so, I have now decided to make a "Gingerbread" Style Dollshouse (i.e. decorating a cardboard "Dollshouse" with Speculatius biskuits and stuff on the outside and then the inside will have 9 rooms each room will have stuff in that represents my occupations, etc....I will use some photos and a lot of clipart that I will cut out and stick onto cardboard and somehow I will make t stand up...(I hope)...and some bits will be done with pipecleaners, and stuff like that....oh the fun, lol!

Sounds good Fairlady - we are doing "People in their Environments" currently and have to make a model of a dining room and the kitchen, all to scale and explain why we have put what where. Thank god we are doing this in groups cos I am rubbish at stuff like this. How are you at model making?

I love Bend it like Beckham Lollipop!

rubbush I am pretty rubbish at all artsy crafty things...lol....

I am cretive, i.e. in thinking...but rubbish at putting it to papaer, so to say ....

That model to scale sounds scary!