The results are in...

Well it's my second week of my health visiting placement and I love it. The staff are great and my mentor is fantastic, she's been helping me to reflect on situations we have encountered and the communication which took place. She's also arranged for me to visit other professionals. This week I spent a day with a nurse prescriber and a social worker, next week I will be joining a midwife on her visits and also attending a conference about children with special needs. This will be useful as I am becoming increasingly concerned with regards to my own son.

Because of the hours I have worked this week my mentor insisted I had a half day today - something I was quite happy to miss as I enjoy this placement so much. However I used the afternoon to travel to my campus as the results of my exam and an assignment were ready for collection. I had thought that by collecting the results in the afternoon there wouldn't be such a big que, unfortunately everyone must have had that idea as the que was very long as it usually is on results day.

Anyhow I received a mark of 55% for the exam which I am a bit disappointed with, which is silly as the pass rate is still 40%. For the essay I received 71% which is my highest pass mark to date. I have one last set of results to get, next month and that will be this year completed.

If we receive an average mark of 50% and above we automatically begin the advanced diploma which is two extra units of work in the final year. So far my average is 61% so it's more than likely I will be working towards the advanced diploma. Which means I need less CATS points to top up the diploma to a degree (though I'm not sure how this will work with a health visiting degree).

Community placement

Today was the beginning on my 3rd placement with a health visitor after a 1 week study break and 2 weeks of holidays.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting parents in their own, home environment and being able to assess the holistic needs of the parents and their children. I was also able to attend a child protection meeting and witness the multidisciplinary team working together. The hours of 9-5 are more sociable than working on the 12 hr ward shifts. But it is Monday to Friday rather than 3 days a week so what I gain in sociable hours I lose in free time as it's almost impossible to study during the weekend with the boys needing attention. But that's okay, on my last placement I was able to provide evidence and therefore pass a lot of the competencies meaning this placement will not be so intense.

I can't wait for the next eight weeks as the health visitor team I met today all seem very open and friendly. It was lovely to hear my mentors opinion on systems and current practices and it will be interesting to work alongside other members of the multidisciplinary team.

Plus, this month i will find out the results of both the essay I submitted in December and the exam. I have already received the results of the workbook I submitted - I achieved 63% which i am obviously happy with.

Yesterday I submitted another essay, about care recieved by a service user from another branch. The results of this should be available in February but to be honest I will probably wait until the end of my placement to get my results as the assignments office shuts at half past four and I don't want to miss any of my placement.