Placement update

Since I came back for year 2 of nursing school in September, I've been basically straight out into placement (aside from a week's orientation). We started specialities in the last semester of year1 and back then I did my Care of the Older Person placement (which was wonderful). As we have 7 specialities altogether (COOP, A&E, OT, Community, Mental Health, Peds, and Maternity), years 2 and 3 will be spent completing these placements, which is super exciting, because it gives us an idea of the different types of nursing and the services available, and maybe an idea of what we'd like to do when we're qualified!
This semester I have 2 different placements- OT (Operating Theatre) and Community. I have 3 weeks at each one. I've my theatre placement done and at this stage I'm almost finished with community.
Before I went into theatre, I didn't really know what to expect. Some of my friends had been there last semester and they all said that they had an amazing time there, which put my mind at ease, but at the same time I wasn't sure about what kind of prep I should be doing etc. One of the girls told me I should ask to scrub in at the earliest opportunity, which I was super excited about because I was dying to get in on the action! I also knew that I had to be confident about what's going on, so I definitely wasn't scrubbing in on Day 1 haha! In theatre, you're not thrown into things as much as you are on the wards, and they definitely take the time to explain things and teach you. You also do a lot of observing and asking lots and lots of questions! I think the one thing you need to be aware of in theatre is how aseptic technique works and what the sterile field is- the last thing you want is to contaminate the sterile field, whether you're scrubbed in or not!
As part of theatre, we were rotated into the different specialised theatres, such as ortho, ob/gyn, general and ENT. We didn't spend much time in the emergency theatre (if any), but that's for essential personnel only so it was definitely understandable! There were so many different procedures going on every day, and it was kind of hard to memorise and get my head around them all, but I did commit the most interesting ones to memory for sure! Needless to say, my time at theatre flew and I had an amazing time there. I was delighted to get great feedback from my preceptor which was the icing on the cake!
Then I went onto Community. I'm still there for another week, but I've already learnt so much in the last 2 weeks. Going into it I knew certain aspects that would be involved in community nursing- such as dressings and home visits. But let me tell you... There are soooo many services out there that I knew nothing about! I was lucky enough to be assigned to my local community setting, which instantly made it easier-I'm saving myself 10 hours/week not having to commute! The nurses at my facility are exceptional-I've never met a team that works as well together. I find it very inspiring there- the nurses are lovely, they're constantly teaching me things and even arranged day visits for me, where I could go and visit an Intellectual Disability setting, a Special Needs centre for children, a palliative care centre, a primary school and many more amazing opportunities. Going into the community setting I knew it would be very different from the hospital environment, but I never realised how much the public health and community nurses do! They definitely have a wide scope of care, which I admire-you need a whole load of skills to be able to go out to someone's home and be confident that you can help them with (almost) anything they need!
I don't know if it's luck or my general outlook on it-but I've had nothing but lovely placements so far! I think that you meet obstacles anywhere you go, but a lot depends on your attitude- if you're positive about it and give it 110% you'll get on great anywhere you go :)

I hope you're all enjoying nursing school and placement-wherever you are!