Life Rambles ~ Dissertation, Blogger Events, and Academic Writing



So last month were my first lectures as a 3rd and final year student nurse and I sat down yesterday to make my list of assignments, all I could think was WOW I have a hell of a lot of work to do by Christmas (you'll be able to see all I get up to on my twitter and instagram!), so I thought I would do a rambly type of post.

Even though I am super excited for Christmas to be here as well come on it's Christmas!! I also have the Liverpool blogger event during November, that I'm excited to catch up with all the girls again. I also think it'll be great as at the end of November I have to have my dissertation draft to be in, so I think it'll be great motivation and give me a much needed break.

That being said a massive, very stressful thing due before Christmas is my 6,000 word dissertation which my first draft needs to be in by the end of November if I want feedback on the whole thing. It's very stressful as we have 4/5 weeks to write 6,000 words and we have just started our dissertation meetings, so if I suddenly disappear from any and all social media and my blog that may be why! That being said anyone that has written their dissertation and has any super helpful tips please please please leave them below or send them to my email!!! It has been about 5 months since I've written anything academic (thank you placements!), so it is taking some time to get back into (I know it sounds silly but when you spend 5 months writing blog posts, you can slip out of academic writing quite easily!).

I think I might start doing these life rambles posts a bit more regularly as they're quite cathartic and pressure relieving as you can get everything out on a page!  


Our role is not only to heal patients heal physically, but spiritually and emotionally. Since we are with them for 12 hours a day, our attitude has to be its best. 


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Danielle Levy
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Tag ~ Sweater Weather


I am pretty sure everyone knows that I am a true winter baby, part of that includes loving autumn and it just happened that Kiah from Kiah's Adventures has tagged me to do the sweater weather tag!




Favourite candle scent?
Surprisingly my favourite candle scent at the moment is one I got mid-way through September from B&M of all places in the scent Frankincense and Murr and it smells AMAZING!! It's really nice as it's not too overpowering when it's lit in the same room as you, just something subtle.

Coffee, tea or hot chocolate?
I don't tend to drink just one of those in autumn, I tend to switch them out and as weird as it sounds I will have a coffee in the morning then drink tea during the day and either have tea or hot chocolate in the evening.


Best autumn fragrance?
I really love vanilla-y scents like The Body Shop vanilla body mist and their smokey rose fragrance which has hints of tobacco in, it just smells amazing!

Best autumn memory?
My best autumn memory has probably got to be back in high school when I always used to walk to school and walk home with my best friend Olivia, it was about a 30-40 minute walk so we always had the chance to have a chat and a laugh.


Favourite book you're reading this autumn?
I'm now in my final year of my nursing degree and have to have my dissertation basically finished by the end of November so everything I'm reading is research-related and nursing-related.

Which makeup trend do you prefer - winged eyeliner or dark lips?
I've never really been a winged eyeliner girl (shocking I know!!) but I've always drifted towards darker lipsticks/lip-glosses, I normally suit the darker colour as apposed to light pinks etc.

Favourite roast dinner food?
Mashed potato and gravy, definitely! This tends to be my go-to meal whenever I feel unwell or can't eat properly.

What is autumn like where you live?
I live in the Wirral in England, the area of the Wirral I live in is right by the beach which means it's always windy and cold and rarely snows, I've always thought it must be something to do with the salt in the air from the sea (that's probably not even the reason but hey!).

Most worn sweater?
My most worn jumpers are two jumpers I got from Monsoon, one is a cream colour and the other is a mink colour. One is fitted all the way down whilst the other has a loose scooped edge at the bottom, they are both super cosy and comfy great for a long day of lectures in cold lecture rooms!



Must have nail polish this autumn?
I seem to have two must have nail polish colours, one is a slight blue toned pink by Morgan Taylor in Watch Your Step, Sister and the other is a mid-tone plum/purple colour by ELF cosmetics in the shade ' '. 

Football games or jumping in leaf piles?
Football games don't tend to be as big a thing in the UK, where I live it's usually a game under-16's play on a Sunday morning on the football pitch in the park so I'll probably have to go for jumping in piles of leaves. However it's more like kicking leaves in the park when I'm walking the dog. 

Skinny jeans or leggings?
Definitely skinny jeans! I am not a fan of leggings at all, I think I've seen too many people wearing leggings with just a t-shirt and it just looks wrong. The only time I wear them is when I have a dress/tunic that is too cold to wear tights and even then I wear them with long boots so you can barely see them! I have been venturing into the land of jeggings this autumn though...

What's something nobody knows about you?
Not many people know/notice when they glance at me is that I had a birthmark in the left side of my left eye, weirdly someone once told me that whenever you have a birthmark is where you were killed in your past life.....I must of had a weird past life!!

Combat boots or Uggs?
I have Bearpaw boots that I wear when it gets really cold in my house, but I rarely ever wear them out of the house. It's normally only when it's super super cold and has snowed (on those extremely rare occasions) as they are supposed to be safe to wear in snow and don't get water damaged....and it actually works!! Out of the two above it would probably be combat boots to wear outside, I am more a fan of little ankle boots though.

Is pumpkin spice worth the hype?
Definitely! I am love pumpkin spice lattes, although I don't know why but I thought it was actual pumpkin but I believe that its the spices like nutmeg, cinnamon etc and that's probably why I like it so much!

Favourite autumn TV show?
I don't really have a favourite autumn TV show, however I am currently loving Damages and Terra Nova.

What song gets your in the autumn spirit?
Weirdly the songs that get me in the autumn spirit are actually Christmas songs, it all roots back to high school as I was in the school choir and pretty much as soon as we started in September we started learning and rehearsing Christmas songs.

Hats or scarves?
Scarves, I rarely wear hats only when it gets super cold as normally if it's cold I will wear my big duvet coat from Monsoon which has a massive warm hood.

Favourite things about autumn?
Definitely all the Halloweeny and Christmasy decorations and celebrations.....and the lovely cold weather and autumn clothes of course.

Favourite autumn movie?
I don't tend to have autumnal movies, however I always seem to watch the Bridget Jones and the Harry Potter movies. They are generally ALWAYS on during autumn and winter in the lead up to Christmas.



*All pictures unless my own were sourced from google under pictures free to download.
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Danielle Levy
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Time to get organised! My new Erin Condren life planner


This post appeals to my fellow stationary addicts out there.....yes I know you're there and if you're doubting if you're a stationary addict have a look in your drawers, pencil case, purse I'm guessing you've probably got plenty of different coloured pens, post-it notes etc. 

So I finally picked up my planner for 2016 and have been lusting after this planner for; I am not joking a year now and I finally picked one up for this next year. I must say I am super impressed with their processing and shipping, this arrived 2 days after it was supposed to have been shipped and I was able to find out exactly where it was if I worried it was taking a while with the tracking they use with every shipping!


How cute is this packaging? Turquoise boxes with pink wrapping tissue?! When I opened it there was a inspirational postcard and sticker as well as a free promotional code for my first order and a couple of birthday/present labels on the inside. 



Underneath the enjoy sticker, everything was wrapped with thick bubble wrap to keep it well protected (nice touch!), inside my order was all tucked up. The first thing I found were my Keep It Together bands which help keep the planner closed, super handy if you're out and about. Also at the moment whenever you order from Erin Condren, all orders get this free gift quote card and over a certain amount (I think its $100) it comes framed for you!  


There was one thing that inspired me to pick up my life planner when I did, that was the above interchangeable cover. The one above is for breast cancer awareness with 50% of the money being donated to Boarding for Breast Cancer, I loved this quote and just had to pick it up as I thought it might disappear after the month of October! I also picked up some blank stickers to push myself into the sticker world, although I did think that I would have got more than one sheets, not sure why!



And the grand finale is the planner itself...I only picked up the 12 month planner in the horizontal layout, which I am in love with and cannot wait to start using. Keep your eyes peeled for future posts next year on how I use it!

How do you guys use your planners, any tips and tricks I should know?

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Danielle Levy
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Experiences ~ Caring for a bay of patients


So I am now a 3rd year student nurse, I thought about now was the right time to do this post! 


Now my second to last placement was on a cardiology ward and it was amazing, I cannot rave enough about it! Part of what I liked so much about the ward was that they started giving me more responsibility and I learnt how to organise my time and jobs like I would when I become a newly qualified nurse. So you are probably wondering what this responsibility is that I was so happy to be given...? 

If you are a nursing student and not had a placement or have never followed a nursing student for the day, normally the student nurse follows the registered nurses caring for patients with some autonomous working in there as well. However I was lucky enough that the ward I was placed on had two small bays of about 3/4 patients which meant in my last 4 weeks of placement my mentor surprised me on a shift and decided that I was going to be the 'main nurse' for those patients (obviously with certain activities that I had to ask for help).

I cared for 4 lovely patients in one of the smaller bays in the ward on an early shift which meant I was responsible for making sure I had a complete handover as well as making a mini to-do list on my handover of the essential jobs that patient needed completing that day. Through handover I discovered that 3 of my 4 patients required procedures today so they needed certain paperwork filled out, as well specific things for each procedure e.g. a brand new wristband (a patient that showers every day need new wristbands very often) and it was important to check that each patient going for a procedure had 2 wristbands on (ankle and wrist on opposite sides). I also had to make sure they had stopped eating and drinking at a certain time and showered with the specified scrub as well as shaving the area (my patients were male so they needed to shave off certain areas of body hair prior to the procedure) and were ready and waiting in a gown before the porters rang to say they were collecting them.

Whilst ensuring that this was being completed ready for their procedure, I had to hand over my four patients to the doctors that would be looking after them that day. I also gave medications (with the supervision of the RN), this included a patient handing me a really old twist top bottle of medication that they had been getting their prescription and decanting it into this bottle! I also discussed medications with the on-ward pharmacist (I found this aspect really interesting that on this particular ward every day one of the lead pharmacists was on the ward checking medication levels for patients and discussing how the patients medications are going and if there were any problems with each individual patient. I actually found that this way a really good way of doing it!).

As the day passed I made sure to contact the catering staff to ensure that my patients that had procedures had meals waiting for them once they were able to eat again (quite a few were NBM due to anaesthesia). Once everyone had been fed it was about that time that the afternoon staff were starting to come in which meant it was time to hand over, the nurse I was with for this day was really nice and gave me the chance to hand over whilst she was sat next me to so that anything I forgot she was able to add in.

Overall I felt that it was such a great experience and a great skill to begin to build on whilst I'm a student! 


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Danielle Levy
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Changing of the Leaves


October is finally here which means we are well into autumn and it's finally time to dig out the jumpers, tights, and ankle boots! So to kick off autumn and the start of some more autumnal posts on my blog I thought I would tell you guys all my favourite things about autumn/winter!



Here are some of the things I love during autumn:~

Cold weather (yes I am a winter baby!)

Hot chocolates

Pumpkin Spiced Lattes in lectures

Duvet days with Netflix with rain outside

Autumn leaves in the tree and covering the ground

Dog walks in the brisk cold weather

Halloween

Christmas & Halloween LUSH items

Cosy socks

Boots

Maroon, Khaki, and Burnt orange clothes!

Having the fire on at night

The countdown to getting the Christmas decs out!!

The possibility of snow

Rain

Bundling up in scarves, hats and gloves

Cosy fluffy Pjs

Having more bubble baths (I prefer showers in the summer!)

Fireworks (even though my dog is terrified of them :(. )

Dark mornings and evenings

Sparklers

Being able to see my breath

Winter coffee flavours

There are just a couple of things that I love about autumn and I can't wait to start digging out my all my cosy jumpers and pjs!

What do you guys love about autumn?

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Danielle Levy
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