My first semester on the BNurs Children’s Nursing course

Keira Hill is a first-year student on the BNurs Children’s Nursing course at Manchester. Here, she talks about her studies during the first semester of the academic year.

This is just a little overview of how my first semester has gone as an undergraduate nurse.

A typical week

Mondays alternated between the Values Based Nursing and Public Health units. I really enjoyed these units, as it was a great chance to make friends and meet the people who are in the child nursing field.

You don’t realise it, but these units are the ones that help you develop the majority of your friendships. These units came with an essay and a presentation, but the support from my lecturers and academic advisor made this much easier.

Hybrid learning from home takes place on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. This was great for myself as I normally commute to uni, so no early starts!

Tuesday calls for Fundamentals of Anatomy and Physiology for Nursing Practice combined with application to practice. At the start, this was daunting, but the interactive learning offered me a chance to ask any questions, with the bonus of being able to work at my own pace.

Wednesday is dedicated to the Safe Medicate unit, which focuses on our maths skills and being able to calculate medications efficiently, and Thursdays are either e-learning or conference days. The conferences are very interesting, as we learn about the different issues that healthcare is facing, and meet people with different conditions to find out about their daily lives.

Friday is essential skills. These sessions aim to improve our communication skills and teach us the basic knowledge any nurse should have before beginning clinical practice. These days allowed us to experiment with taking observations of each other and relating these to everyday conditions we may see, and when to spot an issue.

Semester highlight

Values Based Nursing was by far my favourite unit of the semester. We focused on the values it takes to be a nurse and how these have changed in the history of nursing.

Our essay was based on self-care and how we can promote this for nurses, which I found very interesting as the research was so varied in opinions. My advice for this essay is don’t leave it till the last minute!

Getting our uniforms for placement

The day finally came! We got our uniforms for our placement units in the second semester. We were all so excited, as it finally felt real for us.

Unfortunately, I picked up the wrong bag and ended up with somebody else’s uniform! Luckily, we swapped, and my uniform was finally mine. This was when it hit me that my nursing journey was real.

Read more blog posts about our undergraduate nursing courses or learn more about studying nursing at Manchester.