My placement was at the Nottingham Children’s Hospital which was for a four week period, which started from Monday 9th March and finished on Friday 3rd April.
There are various number of student duties I had to undergo, a few points are as follows.
- · Developing relationships with patients/ and families
- · To organise and set out activities for patients in playrooms and by the bedside, such as arts and crafts, games and consoles.
- · Help maintain a safe environment, by tidying and cleaning playrooms and equipment.
- · To carry out play sessions with children on play programmes and for general play. This may be at the bedside or in playrooms depending on the child’s/ young person’s needs.
- · To promote play opportunities such as supporting children (and their families) in the multi-sensory room and in the outdoor play area, if appropriate.
- · Assist with displays and preparation for activities.
- · To help with charity events to raise money for the Play & Development service such as cake and toy sales.
- · To hand over any relevant information to the Play staff/ nursing staff that you feel may be of importance.
I had a great experience which I personally felt was life changing, I discovered many new things whilst being at the hospital and met so many new people and gained various relationships with the patients and their families.
Due to my placement being a community one it saved me a lot of money as I got to live at my term time address which I found really convenient. Because I was living at my term time address I only needed to commute to placement by public transport which did not cost me anything as I had already paid for my bus pass at the beginning of the year.
It is more than easy to get to the hospital as there are various buses which run via the QMC and back which are the 34,35,36 and Y36, these buses are regular aswell with it only taking around 15 to 20 minutes to get there.
The hours were I thought were convenient, I worked Monday to Friday 8am till 4pm, with a half an hour break for lunch. This gave me an opportunity to not only catch up with my work/ observations but it also allowed me to go home on the weekends and socialize with my friends after work.
Things to do, things not to do
One thing which is important to do is to get permission to take pictures of anything, always ask your supervisors before you do anything in regards to taking pictures of collecting any evidence no matter what ward you are on.
Another thing I would say to do is try and take every opportunity that you may be offered as this will enhance your learning and experience during your time on placement, I learnt that pushing myself out of my comfort zone made me a stronger person overall.
Things not to do would be to turn up late and not inform your supervisor or your manager as they may have something planned for you to do that day and most importantly they are expecting you to arrive and finish at a set time.
Donna Hilton is the Youth and Play Services manager therefore if you wanted to know more about this placement it would be appropriate to contact her directly.
Donna.Hilton@nuh.nhs.uk
Take a notebook if you wanted to do observations and make sure you are wearing the appropriate uniform which the play specialist will go through when you attend the open day.
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