Placements Panic!

Okay, so I had a little bit of a freak-out when I found out where my placement was. I soon got over it...

Stardate: 91300.62

Okay! So, us student radiographers at Leeds have finally found out which hospitals we're going to be working in for the next 3 years. There are currently four trusts that the University of Leeds place students at:

• Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
• Harrogate & District NHS Foundation Trust
• York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• Hull & East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust

My first reaction was to become upset and start panicking, big time (and I mean, Big Time). Mine is away from Leeds, which means I'll be needing to stay in secondary accommodation. So I'll be living out of a suitcase for half the year, while paying for a rented house, that half the time I won't even be living in!

But despite all the original downsides I saw, I realised it was still a placement, the course is still what I want to do, so I'd have to deal with it.

I looked into everything, and it turns out living in secondary accommodation isn't so expensive (especially as you can claim the travel and accommodation costs back). The two recommended places were about £64-75, and didn't look too daunting. Another upside, is that all of the students on placement will be from your course, and you're all in the same boat, so it'll be easier to make friends and bond (I suppose I can pretend I enjoy leaving my room on occasion!)

After speaking to the university about my concerns, I was paired up with a student mentor who had been in a similar situation to me last year, so it's calmed me down realising I'm not the only one who struggles! I suppose that's the biggest thing to remember, you're not alone, nearly ever NHS student has placement problems at some point!

During our induction week, we'll also be visiting our clinical placements, to receive our ID cards, and to look around, so hopefully I'll warm to my site by the end of the day!

LLAP and enjoy a complimentary jelly baby :)