A pinch and a punch…..

It felt like spring was in the air a couple of days ago but I wouldn’t blame the daffodils if they decided to bury their heads back into their bulbs – it’s freezing! I was just getting ready to start my spring clean with that rare sunshine last week making all my windows look extra grimy and showing up all the little dust bunnies in the corners. I’ve changed my mind now and I’m going back into hibernation for a while.

While awaiting the results of my last project – a 3000 word case study, I am preparing my next piece of work - an essay on Clinical Concepts; another 3000 words!  This one is similar to writing a case study but where the emphasis last time was on a single case, this one is on the theoretical concepts using examples of different cases to illustrate our understanding of theory and how we apply it to our work. It feels like that the more I get through my second year the less confident I am feeling. 

It reminds me of the conscious competence theory, another name for Maslow’s "Four Stages of Learning," These describe how a person learns, progressing through these four stages

1. Unconscious Incompetence (you don't know that you don't know something)

2. Conscious Incompetence (you know you don’t know it)

3. Conscious Competence (you have some skill but have to think about it)

4. Unconscious Competence (you are good at it and it now comes naturally)

I was feeling at about stage three but I am now wavering quite severely between  2 and 3.  I am not alone as others on the course are saying similar things and I have heard that year two is the hardest one as it is so intensive.  The tutors said that year 3 is meant to be better but – not according to the year three students I have spoken to!  

Conquering those computer tabs!

I am now settling into my work each Monday on the phones in the Enquiry Unit.  Luckily most days I have been next to Jerusha or Katrina - both absolute whizzes and mines of information.  I kept getting all my tabs on the computer muddled up so I went in yesterday determined to sort myself out and master it all.  Katrina with the patience of a saint sorted me out and now I can navigate my way round the websites so much quicker – I think I even reached level 3 by the end of the day!  I can’t believe I have survived this long without knowing how to do tabs.  Maybe I will even be able to learn Twitter soon!