February 1, 2009. A cold, snowy day!

February 1, 2009


I just worked 3 long days, laced with outings in London with Dow. It is quite cold, windy, and there are snow showers. Dow and I spent the morning helping a girl move into her dorm room with the help of her parents. The elevator is not working, and it is 72 steps up to the fourth floor, or there is another route with a long walk and many fire doors to another elevator. Between the two choices, we helped them move her things into her room. She had enough belongings to completely fill up the space of her room. She is separated from her husband, but there is a 2-year waiting time before they can divorce! She told me this building is to have cable TV access this month!!!!!
Our outing today was to go have Sunday dinner at the pub where we went last week. That dinner is so incredible!! Again, anyone coming over to London, I will treat you to this dinner!!! It is cold and windy today, and has actually snowed enough to cover the ground. Therefore, we have had a quiet day in the room, watching some good TV. Yesterday we took a bus to Greenwich and had a pub meal, as it was too cold to do much else. But it was a nice, long bus ride that we enjoyed. On the way back we got caught up in a traffic jam because of a demonstration related to Gaza, but it was actually a good thing, because the bus went slowly over the river Thames, and we were able to look out at the sites, including the buildings of parliament and Big Ben.
Tomorrow I have my mandatory, moving and handling class. I am now off of supernumerary (being with a preceptor), but I have yet to take my drug-passing test before I can pass medication on my own. I believe this involves being with an instructor and demonstrating my competency to be able to pass medication by following the 5 rights. I have completed a workbook with questions regarding medication knowledge. They have pca’s, but that requires another workbook and test. The attitude towards pca’s seems to be quite different than what I am used to. The policy is that there needs to be nursing one to one to assure safety for patients with pca’s. There is only one medication, morphine, and there is only one setting.
I now have my uniform and identification, so I am feeling quite equipped for the job. I also have black shoes, but I wore them 2 days in a row, and I had to take a break from them because I could hardly walk by the end of the second shift! So it was back to my white Keds for a while.
I absolutely love going to work; however, there are a few issues that I am having a hard time with, and they basically center around medical care. I am looking forward to talking to colleagues in Portland and see if I can make sense of my observations. When a nurse has worked in a specialty for years, there is an expected course of medical care that she would expect for patients. What I am seeing here does not necessarily match those expectations, but again, different is different.
Some observations. Medication boxes also have Braille on them. No filter needles and a lot of glass ampules. Sharp containers are infrequent, and the hole to drop the sharp in is gaping.
Oh by the way, have I mentioned that I have 7 weeks of vacation a year? Yep, true story. They are already pushing vacation on me. This is enabling me to come home to Portland for a week the end of February!!