Gemma is a children's nursing student. She's thrilled to have got a place on her course as there are not so many places for children's nursing and competition is fierce. Gemma is in year1 of the programme and enjoying the university element of the course so far. She always knew she wanted to be a children's nurse as she loves babies and children. She entered nurse education straight after A-levels, having done well at school, being considered quite academic, so she feels reasonably confident that she can cope with the theoretical elements of the course. However, she is a bit more concerned with the prospect of clinical placement. Although she thinks she will really enjoy interacting with children, she realises there is more to nursing than that. She feels that she looks young (she is young at 19 years of age) and worries about looking and sounding authoritative enough. Will the parents of the children take her seriously? She is the youngest child in her own family and has always been the 'baby'. Now she will be expected to look after others and to sound like she knows what she's doing. Gemma keeps having thoughts such as 'I look like a schoolgirl', 'I wish I looked older', 'Can I really do this?'. She is getting quite anxious at the thought of going out into practice.
Referring back to the chapter related to self and critical thinking .....
It is proposed that how a person appears has no impact on their ability to communicate effectively