Pre Nursing 2013/2014
On Friday March 28th we had our now annual Disability Awareness Day in the PLC Centre in St. Conleth’s Community College. This year we had two groups participating: - The Pre Nursing Group and the Community Care Group, forty students in total. The students all took on a disability for the day and used many of the facilities around the town to experience what it is like for somebody living everyday with this disability. The feedback was very compelling with issues such as ‘high footpaths’ making it difficult for wheelchair access and for people with visual impairment to ATM machines being too high to access. The purpose of this exercise was to highlight to these future carers just how difficult everyday living can be for someone living with a disability. On their return to the college the students evaluated their day with words ranging from ‘enlightening’ to ‘frustrating’ , ‘isolating’ and ‘vulnerable’ being used to describe their experiences.
We were joined for the day by the Coordinator (Gillian Goulding) and members from the Athy Branch of Irish Wheelchair Association who spoke about the IWA and the members gave their ‘Life Histories’. As always this was a very beneficial day for everyone concerned. The students all worked very hard in organising the day from creating posters to advertise it to preparing and serving lunch and snacks to all our visitors. The two groups would like to thank the Principal and all the staff that helped and to those who supplied the wheelchairs for the exercise and of course to the Athy Branch of IWA who are always ready to support us in any way they can.
Georgina Finnegan, Course Coordinator
On Friday March 28th we had our now annual Disability Awareness Day in the PLC Centre in St. Conleth’s Community College. This year we had two groups participating: - The Pre Nursing Group and the Community Care Group, forty students in total. The students all took on a disability for the day and used many of the facilities around the town to experience what it is like for somebody living everyday with this disability. The feedback was very compelling with issues such as ‘high footpaths’ making it difficult for wheelchair access and for people with visual impairment to ATM machines being too high to access. The purpose of this exercise was to highlight to these future carers just how difficult everyday living can be for someone living with a disability. On their return to the college the students evaluated their day with words ranging from ‘enlightening’ to ‘frustrating’ , ‘isolating’ and ‘vulnerable’ being used to describe their experiences.
We were joined for the day by the Coordinator (Gillian Goulding) and members from the Athy Branch of Irish Wheelchair Association who spoke about the IWA and the members gave their ‘Life Histories’. As always this was a very beneficial day for everyone concerned. The students all worked very hard in organising the day from creating posters to advertise it to preparing and serving lunch and snacks to all our visitors. The two groups would like to thank the Principal and all the staff that helped and to those who supplied the wheelchairs for the exercise and of course to the Athy Branch of IWA who are always ready to support us in any way they can.
Georgina Finnegan, Course Coordinator
Disability Awareness Day
The Pre Nursing and Community Care groups will be taking part in our annual disability awareness day on Friday 28th March 9-4. The groups will be taking on specific disabilities and participating in different activities. We will be joined for the day by staff and members from Irish Wheelchair Association Athy Branch.
Student Blog: Click on the following link to find out more.
Pre Nursing News
The year started well with 29 students all ready and eager to begin the first step on their journey to a challenging and exciting career.
Alison’s blog will tell you how they got on for the first term from a student’s perspective.
During the first term we had many guest speakers in, from Trinity representatives to UCAS speakers not to mention our friends and colleagues from Platinum Club House who are always willing to offer learning experiences to our students.
I think it is true to say that our first term culminated in our trip to Trinity College school of Nursing in St James’s Hospital where following organisation from Freda O Neill, Miriam Mc Kenna and her colleagues spent a morning showing the students around the school of nursing and demonstrating what it would be like to be studying there. The students were delighted with this as were the Trinity Lectures delighted with the knowledge that our group were able to display. Our invitation is safe for next year J (see photos of the day)
Christmas came and went and first assignments were handed back with all the hard work paying off in the excellent results.
The group are heading out on work placement on Monday 27th January for three weeks having already completed one week of their four week requirement. Naas hospital and Crumlin Hospital are once again facilitating students and also Kildare Mental Health Services among many other placements and a big THANK YOU to all of those organisations for their help. This year we have also secured a place in the Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore so all of our students are very excited to begin the next step on their road to Nursing!
Many of the students are travelling to England and Scotland at the moment for interview for places on Nurse Training programmes and all of them have made CAO applications.
On return from work experience the students will have a few Skills demonstrations and then straight into exams and all of a sudden we will be back on the search for yet another excellent group of PRE NURSES to carry on the brilliant record of achieving university places that we have set over the past four years.
SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR GO ON AND APPLY YOU CAN DO IT WITH JUST ONE CLICK OF A BUTTON AND YOU TOO COULD BE ON YOUR WAY TO AN EXCITING YEAR AND A REWARDING CAREER.
GEORGINA FINNEGAN
(COURSE CO-ORDINATOR)
The students of the Pre Nursing class 2012/2013 have been in touch and gave us an update on their post St.Conleths Pre Nursing year.
- I just emailed the college with my results there so hopefully I'll be starting in Scotland on the 16th of September. N
- I got Childrens and General in Trinity, that is my first choice. I will be deferring this year and hope to start September 2014 A
- I'm heading to Robert Gordon university to do adult nursing. M
- I got offered applied social care in social studies in blancharstown but i don't know whether to take it or defer it till next year and try again for nursing next year with Adelaide and fetac A
- I got offered a level 8 course in DCU called health and society. I was really interested in it and it can also get me into nursing. So I'm delighted. C
- I wanted to let you know the fantastic news that I've been accepted to DCU for general nursing, I'm so overwhelmed with happiness. K
- I'm just writing to let you know that I was offered a place in UCD for Children's and General Nursing. I'm choosing that over Brighton. C
- I got an offer this morning from the CAO. I received my first choice which was midwifery in Trinity College. G
- I didn't get it,but I'm not going to give up I'll re apply next year and I'm looking up things to do for this year at the moment. S St. Conleths are very proud of the student's hard work and the great results.
Pre Nursing 2012/2013
Our 2012/2013 Plc session is going from strength to strength. Take a look at the updates from our coordinator and current Pre-Nursing students.
- Coordinators note
- Pre-Nursing Overview 2012/2013
- Guest Speakers
It is hard to believe another year is well underway. This year we have well over forty Pre Nursing students.
It is our hope that this year we will offer the reader of this website an ongoing view of the year as it unfolds.
At the moment the students are busy with assignments and preparing for their work experience placements. Just last week they all received their Pre Nursing Practical Packs which will enable them to practice skills such as monitoring blood pressures and checking oxygen saturation levels. Many of them have secured places in large teaching hospitals where no doubt they will gain tremendous experience that will stand to them in their future careers.
This month we are happy to include a piece from one student who echoes the thoughts of her many pre nursing colleagues when she details her thoughts of the course to date.
We also include a student account of our first guest speakers who came from Trinity College to inform the group on Mental Health Nursing.
Regards from the Pre Nursing Team
Pre-Nursing Overview 2012/2013
Being a Pre-Nursing student in St Conleths community college is a privilege and a wonderful opportunity for progression to third level education. On this course a nursing student has much to learn in a relatively short period of time so it is important that you attend classes in order to take in the knowledge provided by the experienced tutors.
Yes it can be hard and you may be feeling nervous and worried of what is to come, let me reassure you that over the next few months what you are about to learn will be worth it, you will acquire valuable memories and skills that will help you progress and will stay with you throughout your nursing career.
To date we are in our third month of the course and we have covered many interesting and important skills such as patient handling, manual handing, bed bath, assisting patients with activities of daily living such as showering and feeding, taking observations such as temperatures, pulse and respirations and charting the results. Next week we go on to taking blood pressures. As well as other key skill such as appropriate washing of hands, the use of Protective personal equipment, bed making, etc.
As a Nursing class we work together as a group in order to practice and demonstrate the skills we are learning. It is great to have such a solid, hard working, enthusiastic group of people to share the experience with and combine everyone’s skill and knowledge to the numerous practical tasks.
I am looking forward to see what the rest of the course has in store.
Regards
Anne Marie from Pre Nursing
Guest Speakers:
Last week we had our first guest speakers. They were the placement officers for Mental Health Nursing from Trinity College. I feel this talk benefited us all greatly. Bernie and Jenny (the speakers) gave us a detailed insight into Mental Illness, causes, treatments and management and also the role of a Nurse trained in Mental Health. Bernie outlined the different aspects of the four year degree course. If any of us had any doubts or queries on following that particular career path they were all cleared up in that two hour talk. For many of us it may have encouraged us to change the area of nursing that we will apply for when filling in our CAO forms (which is our next job!) Overall it was a worthwhile experience as it cleared up many myths about Mental Health Nursing and gave us an insight into what happens at degree level.
We look forward to our next guest speaker which is the Chair person of the Kildare Alzheimers society followed by a Nurse specialist in Palliative care.
Regards
Sinead from Pre Nursing
2012 Student Updates
Placement of 5 students in Nursing in Trinity College Dublin
Placement of 3 sudents in Nursing courses in colleges in Scotland
Placement for 3 students in I.T. Carlow- 1 Social Studies & 2 Pharmaceutical studies
Placement of 1 student in N.C.I for a Business course