Week 7, 8, and 9

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Well I have finished my 3rd week working. It is SO different then back home and I have changed my mind every shift to weather or not I like it. The routines are all over the place so I am having a hard time adjusting to that. Right now my nursing is kind of like dealing with the issues as they come. I am working on GI and Liver surgical floor. I have to wear a uniform, a white long top with navy blue pants and straps on the shoulder in blue to designate that you are an RN. The uniform is not scrub material, it is really heavy and not that comfortable to wear. The unit is a 72-bed unit divided into 12-14bed pods with a nursing station at each pod. 2 RN’s and one CSW (clinical support worker) work on day shift at each station. The patients are a lot more medical then surgical. There are a lot of people getting ERCP’s, admitted with pancreatisis, and general N&V issues. They also diagnose a lot of people with pancreatic CA. The patient’s are a lot more independent and there is less to do for each patient then there is back home, so you end up having 6-7 patient’s each here. It is hard to keep track of that many patients at once and it can get really busy getting things done. In the morning they get every patient up and out of bed and the linins are changed. The am medications and obs (vitals) are done at the end of the night shift at 7am so first thing in the morning is focused on washing and checks. Checks are for your patients with sliding scales, for insulin infusions, PCA’s, and catheters. These checks are done every hour all day, so this takes up most of your time. You also have to attend the doctor’s rounds and write down the plan for the day; there are 4 teams of doctors. They go to the patient’s bedside with the whole team and the nurse. These rounds are twice a day, once in the morning then again at 5pm. The day goes by pretty good, it is quite different then 2C, different type of busy. I have to learn about some new drugs, but most are the same as back home. IV drugs and narcotics have to be checked by 2 nurses before administration. And when you give narcotics to the patient 2 nurses have to sign it out and go the bedside with the MAR. They ask the patients name, date of birth and allergies every time they hand out narcotics. Can you guys image doing that on our floor? They have a lot of different short forms and names for things here that confuse me because they mean some else back home. They call MAR’s the Kardex, CBG’s are called BM’s (blood monitoring), Doctors are called consultants. Then the OR is theatre, NPO is NBM (not by mouth). There are so many. I work 12.5 hour shifts, from 7:30- 20:00, there are only long days or nights. The extra ½ hour is for “handover” and they sit in a room and talk about every patient. It is printed off the computer, on a spreadsheet and it normally 3 pages. So you have to carry it around, it is kind of like a condensed version of our kardex. The other nurses are very nice and I am meeting some really interesting people. I am the only one from somewhere else. Everyone is VERY Scottish; I love listening to the people talk all day. I get asked where I am from everyday, and most people guess Canada, from “my accent”.
I have had the chance to explore Edinburgh. There is so much to see and do. Prince’s street is the main road in Edinburgh, full of great shops and it has a beautiful garden that runs along side it. This is where you can see the castle and the Scot monument. The drive to work is also really pretty. I am planning on getting off the bus and exploring the area around the hospital. The bus system here is great and they take you everywhere, even all the way to the city of Rosslin. It is about a 45min drive to this city and this is where the Rosslyn chapel is (don’t ask me why it is spelled differently). We had lunch in a cute little pub here and saw the chapel and walked around the grounds to the castle, which is along the side of a cliff and all that is left is ruins. The scenery was wonderful. So far I am really enjoying Edinburgh, my roommates are great, we are having a really good time. Work is work of course but it could be a lot worse, just a bit of growing pains. Time is going by really quickly. The tourist season is starting up and because all the festivals are starting. The weather is finally not that cold anymore, still not hot enough for shorts or anything but nicer. In 4 weeks Jon is coming over for a week so I am really excited for that. We are planning on doing a 2 day tour of the highlands. Then my parents are coming over and we are going to Ireland. I still have a list of places I want to go over here. Even with all this time I have here you still can’t see everything.

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