Ever wondered what it's like to be a nurse? 
The long hours, no breaks, and heaps of overtime. Nah, not really. I can't complain about my day. 
Nursing is one of those jobs where you never know what your day will hold. Even when I prepare for my day in the morning, it might end up completely different by the time I walk out of the hospital. 
This means that one of the best traits for a nurse to have is adaptability - the ability to handle any situation as it arises. 

Take a look to see what a typical day in my life entails. 
If this post proves popular, I will write one about be day of being on call. 

We, as nurses, have a demanding and hard job. Not only is it physically difficult but it is emotionally difficult. When we care for patients we give them our heart, soul and mind so that we can provide them with the best compassionate and holistic care that we can. 

Doing this can come at a cost to ourselves, and many nurses find themselves burnt out. 

Even our personal situations may make it difficult for us to cope. Whether it be financial, relationships, family, or anything at all, sometimes we need to focus on ourselves and recentre.  

This blog is written based solely off my recent personal circumstances. 

"What is a perianaesthesia nurse?", "What do you do?", "I don't know that is...", "Your job sounds easy.", 
"Do you just watch people sleep?"

These are question I get asked all the time, and I'm sure my fellow perianaesthesia nurses do too. 

Perianaesthesia is a unique blend of critical care nursing and perioperative nursing, that a lot of people never see. 

In this blog post I want to take some time to explain what my job is, what we do, how we look after our patients, and some of the knowledge we acquire for our jobs. 

We all have a role in supporting each other. 

Throughout my time at CQUniversity I volunteered as an ALLY. My role here has allowed me to meet, understand and help many people, whether they are LGBTI, or from a different culture or minority group. 

Inclusion and a sense of belonging should be a must in every workplace. Without it, staff will feel unhappy.

Take a moment to read this blog on how to make your workplace LGBTI friendly. Some of these points can be used to make the workplace friendly for people with cultural diversity and disabilities, but for today we'll stick with LGBTI. 

Going for surgery is often a daunting and scary journey that we have to take. Well, even for a theatre nurse it's scary! Being the patient instead of the nurse was an eye opening experience and is quickly becoming a powerful reflection tool.
It's not until we experience something ourselves that we completely understand the emotions and feelings that the situation creates.
By being a patient, and experiencing it first hand, I'm now able to empathise with my patients more.

​Read about my surgical experience here!