USA och Kanada Archives - Sjuksköterskestudenter utomlands

The end of my trip

2015-10-08

My 5 weeks of clinical rotation are soon turning to an end. Today I will do my last day at the hospital MCCG (The Medical Center of Central Georgia) in Macon. There have been a lot of good bad also bad experiences. Though this is my second time doing a clinical rotation outside of Sweden I feel that this is normal, because the health-systems work different and different countries have different issues.

When it comes to obesity I haven’t actually seen so many obese people, more obese children. But when children are obese, they aren’t as obese as grown ups can be. Some of the students told me that it does not need much weight for a child to be obese, but it does for a grown up person. So I think the issue here is mainly children that have fast-food and a lot of sugar in different drinks. The typical drink in Georgia is sweetened-tea. It is tea that is boiled and than they put in a lot of sugar. After that it is served with a lot of cold ice. There is also a good lemonade that is typically for Georgia or you could mix both the tea and the lemonade to get a 50/50. But, there do serve unsweetened tea as well, which I am totally fine with drinking. And everybody drinks it with a plastic-straw. In a styrofoam-cup. From what I experienced here a lot of plastic-dishes are used here, instead of washing dishes. Even at the hospital everything that is used in patient care is basically one-way used. So a lot of plastic. Even the spoon, forks and knives are made in plastic and single-packed in plastic.

Fresh Donut after a long day of clinical at the hospital 🙂

When it comes to the patient care I see that the nursing-education is very anatomy- and physiology-focused. When I look at how the nurses work though, they do work a lot more with caring-sience, which is not much educated in school, from what I understood from the students. This is the total reverse from Sweden, where the nurse is the expert in caring-sience and the physician (doctor) is the expert in the medical field. I also saw that they use restrainment-orders on arms and legs for patients that are bed-bund and are in need of intensive-care. I recognize this from Vienna in Austria where this also was used for patients awakening from anesthesia from an organ-transplantation. It may seem strange for a Sweden like me, because this is not used in Sweden and totally banned. At the ICU in Kalmar they have nurses (LPN) who sit and wait on the patients, just holding down their hands if they try to fight the tube in their throat. I have been discussing this treatment with nurses in Austria, Sweden and the U.S. and I found that there are advantages and disadvantages. It is easier to work with restrained patients, but it is also a restrainment of one others life. I think here in terms of that another person must feel trapped while awakening, but is it better to hold down the hands and legs by e person? It probably is, yes. But it also needs a lot more staff and people who watch their patients 24/7, every minute of the shift. And after my summer at the ICU working 3-shift, I can tell that it is a HARD job!

Nursing-station in the hall-way at the pediatric-ward.

This clinical rotation was supposed to be a 5-week rotation in the community. With a community nurse. It turned out not to be exactly like that. I was the first student from Linneaus university to visit GCSU. There have been several students in Växjö at LNU’s campus, but none has gone over to the U.S. from my university. I have had issues with getting to places of my clinical rotations (everything is far away here, but thanks to ALL the WONDERFUL nursing-students I could get my way to all the rotations with them. I did organize a lot of those trips by myself and my roommate Anna which also is a nursing student. I think that 5 weeks is to short to come over to the U.S. for a clinical rotation, because there are a lot of preparations that have to be done while in the States. Their law HIPPA is for the patients safety and confidentiality and is hard regulated. I also heard that nurses have to prove their registration (legitimation in swedish) every other year at a board, so they still have the knowledge for their work. This law makes it hard to just get to a clinical rotation, especially because I am not American.

Treatment-room for children.

It has been of huge help to live with Anna, Jennie and Beth. They helped me with a lot of questions and also allowed me to borrow their cars, which made it easy for me to shop groceries and get to barns where I spend some of my free-time riding. To live with local people is a easy way to get closer to the community and I think the whole travel mainly gave me a grate cultural experience.

Cars for children at the ward.

Now the time has come for me to take some vacation. Since I have made all my time for my clinicals and I got signed all my papers, I will leave for Miami on Sunday. I booked a flight yesterday and I hope that I might even make it for a Cruise to the Caribbean. I still don’t know, but there are also other option, e.g. the network called “Air bnb”, which is a homepage where people rent their apartments for a good price. It also gives you the opportunity to meet local people. I plan on grabbing my bags and leaving them at the airport in Atlanta. I will than only travel with my backpack to Florida and later next week return to Atlanta for my final flight home.

I hope you had a great time reading my blog, I will return with some vacation pictures though.

Georgia is a State well known for casting movies. “Forrest Gump” and “Fried Green Tomatoes” are two movies recorded in Georgia. Anna and I went to “The Whistle Stop Café” which was build for the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes” and we had food with fried green tomatoes which was delicious. Even though the place is simple, it has outstanding food and is situated in a neat surrounding. And of course it looks just like in the movie! A special thank you to Anna Agyao, without here all this has not been possible!

See ya later!

Two weeks, one big post

2015-09-29

Week 2 started out good. I found to a barn and some horses. It is hard to be away from my animal-friend, a horse namend Lovely who lives in Sweden. Happily Jennie (one of my roommates) helped me to find a place called ”Horse Dreams” which is really close to where I live. At Horse Dreams they work with having 2 horse-camps for children in the summer – all for free! For children an families that can’t efford their children to ride. So during the rest of the year the 18 horses that Mrs. Paula owns have to be feed and exercised. At it is here she has a lot of college-students helping here with that in exchange for riding.

And than Walmart. Again. I love Walmart – the big store that has everything! In this picture you can see crazy scrubs that the nurses have to buy by themselves. I learned during the last week that the nurses here have to wash their own scrubs. I also learned that the nurses don’t use aprons, only if their patient having diseases that their know about. I have even seen nurses not wearing anything besides their scrubs when helping a mother giving birth to her child. I also learned that Georgia is a State where forbidden by law to teach anything else than abstinence from sex as contraceptive, which means that people can’t have sex if they don’t want a baby. Or at least it means that the schools don’t teach about condoms or other contraceptives.

In this picture you can see what it takes to buy a weapon in Georgia. You have to be of a certain age and you have to show a by government issued identification, preferable the drivers license. That means that everybody in the State of Georgia can buy a gun. I know though from my roommates that you need a certain license to be able to carry a gun with you. But it is easy to get that from what I have heard. One night there was a shooting near our house. I still do not know why, but my roommates told me that there are gang-issues and have been all summer long.

Of course I had to bake a “kladdkaka” or as I call it in english “mudcake” for my kind and always helping roommates! I am actually allowed to borrow their cars sometimes which makes it easy for me to get to the barn, the gym and, of course, Walmart! I am pretty proud of myself to find myself through the jungle of streets here. But it helps that the streets are so big, it makes it easier to drive and see the traffic.

One of my days at the university I was allowed to spend with eldery people who where bicycle-racing. Not so harmless I have to say… One broke his wrist, one crashed is bike and probably his hip too and one made it as only male in 90+ to the gold-medal. The 90+ man you can see in this picture. He said he didn’t think it was so hard though he hadn’t any competition, but he waits for the next year for someone to claim his prize.

This travel has so far been a cultural challenge for me. There are many things I’m not always sure about. But sometimes signs help me to know how I should behave or dress. For instance this sign which explains the dress-code for the gym. I was by the way able to buy a membership for the gym for the time being in Milledgeville. The gym is really nice and modern. It has 2 swimming-pools, 2 big sports halls, a big gym and is all green, which means they don’t have any emissions. E.g. they use the energy the students make by riding bicycles and running on the thread-mill.

There are a lot of interesting animals here! I have not been able to catch all on camera, but they will always be there in my memory. Or at least as long my memory works as it should. In the first picture you can see a Mantis, in the second you can see a cockroach. The worst thing with cockroaches is that they can fly too… And one night one ran over my foot when I opened the door just for one second… I washed off my foot afterwards. I’ve seen big spiders and caterpillars too, but also a lot of birds, e.g. the big white Egret, such a beautiful bird!

Everything in the U.S. is possible to get by car, even medications, coffee and money from the bank – drive-thru! In this picture you can see a drive-thru pharmacy. Medication here is not the same as in Sweden. There are some painkillers, stomach-medication, antibiotics (for the skin) and even some sleeping-pills you can get easily without any prescription. In the next picture you can see all the medications I just described below, all for under 1 Dollar at Walmart. Even ointment for smoother muscles.

Between the days at the university I am able to take a swim in a outside pool as well. The day I took this picture was unfortunately one of the last days I saw the sun. The weather is still humid, but it is starting to get more cold though fall is due here too.

The clinical rotation in the community at Georgia College also means that I have to gain knowledge from different activities in the community. One of my days with my fellow nursing students I spend at the Ocmulgee National Monument Park where Indians from all over the U.S. had a big meeting. In the first picture you can see how different the food is from the Indians usual food compared to our modern food-rations. At the park we students had to be in a first-aid tent waiting for people in need of first-aid. (Un-) Fortunately there where no people in need of care when I was at the station so I was able to go and see all the fun stuff the festival had to offer. In the second picture you can se an Indian mound, a hill build with clay by Indians. I was able to walk inside it and it is believed that the mound functioned as a place for rituals. In the third picture you can see the typical lunch here. As we where volunteers we got food for free. As a poor student I do not complain about free food, but I wanted to show you the picture of it because a lot of food over here looks just like that. I do actually cook a lot of food by myself, just because I like to know what’s in the food. In comparison here a picture of the food I made with food from a farmers market. I used potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash pumpkin and Ocra. Ocra is a vegetable which is typical for the South of America. I really enjoyed my Ocra as my supervisor/teacher Sallie Coke (who got me to Georgia) recommended me to taste it. I think I liked it most as a raw vegetable, crunchy! In the 5st picture you can see me in front of the ambulance they had at the festival. Actually they did leave to motor on, because they’re otherwise afraid of the engine not to start again. It is still a car that need a lot of energy to work properly. The last picture here shows my little key-chain I bought at the market from a really, really nice and pretty dressed woman at a tent. Such a magnificent handcraft!

Later in the week the students had to give each other and all people who came in and wanted, a flue-shoot. It is a vaccine against the influenza and is offered all students for free, but is mandatory for all nursing-students. Other people from different places in Milly can choose to stop buy and pay 20 Dollars for the vaccine as well. This gives the students a great opportunity to practice a intramuscular injection in the deltoid muscle.

And than of course more horses again… I bought this wonderful leggings with horses, of course, at Walmart. And I rode in them, because it was to humid and warm to wear my usual riding-pants. You can also se Mrs. Paula driving here golf-cart on the trail. It was interesting to see how far the car could go, but there are so much stronger than I ever thought! It went a lot up- and downhill!

The nature around here is also very beautiful. Here you can se the hibiscus, one of my favorite flowers when painted.

On of my days at the students clinic I spent learning a lot about pediatrics and I also learned how to intubate a baby. Even if neither the nurses in the USA nor in Sweden are allowed to intubate patients if they aren’t an anesthesia-nurse, it is always good to have the knowledge of it!

Georgia is known as the State where a lot of movies are recorded. One of them is “Fried Green Tomatoes”. I had the pleasure to borrow the movie from my roommate and I loved it! But of course I hade to try real fried tomatoes to and I loved them too! Here you can see how the look like for real.

As a lot of my friends at home know I am a nurse to be involved in a lot of discussions about the future salary for nurses. Here at Georgia College there is a organization called “Start Smart”. They had a workshop about how to start smart with a good salary, because there is a huge gap between man and woman. During a lifetime a man can earn 1 miljon Dollar more than the woman…

I don’t know why, but I didn’t believe that all the things I have seen on TV from America where for real. One example is here: they do play beer-pong at parties and there are people producing a spirituous called “Moonshine”. Moonshine is known as alcohol that is made outside of the borders of the law, it is forbidden do make your own alcohol in the U.S, just as it is in Sweden. But there are people (yes, in Sweden too) who make Moonshine. And then there is Moonshine that is sold legally. In the picture you can see Moonshine at a liquor-store.

And here one last special picture. Buy wine at the pharmacy. You could buy all that is needed for the evening there: pills, DVD’s, toys for kids, candies, body-products… And of course wine…

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday – clinical training center, shopping, swimming and food

2015-09-16

Hi there far away and near!

Or whoever is reading my blogg. Sunday I spend with taking it easy at home with a lot of chatting with my roomates – the best girls I could find to stay with! Than in the evening Beth and I took a short drive to the mall and we found this funny thing, a fountain with a bible and a cross.

Monday morning was my first day at school. My expectations where to found something like our clinical training center in Kalmar. I went to school in my scrubs I was allowed to borrow from the university. I have one set with dark-blue scrubs with the logo from the university, a lab-coat (when it turns cold in the classrooms they can use it there, the scrubs are for using at the clinical training center and when visiting at the hospital) and 2 polo-shirts for working in the community. This is me before walking to school:

Here are some pictures from my 10 minute walk to the campus. This morning it was actually only 12’C, so a little chilli. But later on during the day it became nice and warm again.

Here are some pictures from the day at the clinical training center. On the first picture you can see 2 students training with a teacher how to take a blood-sugar sample.

In the second picture you can see another teacher take care of a decubitus-wound at stage 4 on a model.

In the third picture you can see a doll with a stomach with four different ostomies. Besides the doll you can see the different intestines of the human body, but from another model.

In this picture you can see a part of the university. The campus looks pretty much like this everywhere. After the clinical training (which was basically what we used to train in semester 2 and 4 at the nursing-program in Sweden, and I couldn’t find any difference between how they work and we), I had to go to the office for doing test on the computer for a hospital where I should go for some clinical training during my weeks in Georgia. It turned out to be a really big test and I felt totally overwhelmed – it was not what I had expected. The thing is here in the U.S you have to sign papers for everything you do and apparently do a lot of test on the internet too… I was about to start crying, because the first test out of 10 was over 100 questions, and even though I understand a lot of english and speak it pretty well too, I had hard times to understand some of it. Happily some of my new made nursing-friends from the clinical training center could help me out to do the first and biggest test. Man, what a day… I thought getting to the U.S was the biggest part, but no. Here it came again…

After school I was able to borrow my roommates car and I drove for the first time a car in the united states on my own! It felt pretty weird, but I was so proud of myself that I did found my way to the mall and home again and could manage the traffic and signs I am normally not used to! After the afternoon in school I had to go shopping to cool down my depressed nerves.

As I had to put gas in the car I realized for the first time HOW cheap the gas prizes are here! I put gas in the car for 10 dollars (which is less than 100kr) and half of the tank was full!

It turned Monday and I gotten to the drug-screening part of my journey and leaving a blood-sample. A kind student from another nursing-cohort (=class) helped me to get there and we decided to go to a swim-class in the morning, though the clinic was in the same house as the fitness-center. While waiting to get to the nurse at the health-care clinic they have for students, another student came and talked to the girl who has drove me to the clinic. Her friend, a young man, came there apparently because he had been poisoned by poison-ivy – a common plant in the U.S I hd heard some of on different american tv-shows. In this picture you can see the poor guys rash after getting in contact with the oil of the plant “poison-ivy”. This rash shall never be scratched, though it itches a lot. The rash-bubbles can explode and they said they can be contagious. Poison-Ivy can get into your blood-stream too, and apparently this poos guy had had that too. If the Ivy gets into your blood-stream it can actually get really dangerous, so the Ivy is definitely a plant to be beware of!

After giving away my blood and urine for the drug-screening (I even had to sign a paper (again!) that I was about to donate urine…………. In the next picture you can see a cabinet from the changing-room for the swimming-hall. As you can see there is a shower and in close connection a dressing-room. I post this especially regarding to the ongoing discussion about weather children in Swedens schools shall shower separately or together.

In this picture you can see a machine that spins so your wet bathing-suit gets a little dryer before putting it into your bag. Funny invention!

After the swim-class Bethany (the other one, also a nursing-student) took me to a place called Chick-filé-A. The Southern part of America (where I am at right now) is especially known for it´s fried food. I ate a classic burger with fried chicken and vegetables. As I got a menu I ate the funny potato-chips you can see in the picture here. To that I got a typical lemonade that tasted sweet and a little bit sour.

As you maybe know from my earlier trip and clinical training in Austria I am all about the toilets in foreign countries 😉 Here I found a funny thing I would like at many other toilets: a machine that gives you free mounth-wash after the dinner.

In the evening I went to do some shopping and I found these fun scrubs for nurses at Walmart: all kind of nice colors and styles like The lion king, the minions and Puh the bear.

I was also surprised that you could my sleeping-pills without persecution for less than 1 Dollar…

Here you can see the typically license-plate on a car in Georgia. My roommates told me that you can choose the sentence underneath “In god we trust”, but you can only have that or “The State of Georgia”. As many of you know there is a lot of Christians living in the United States. On the plate (which I have been editing on the computer, for confidentially reasons) you can see the Southern peach – the fruit of Georgia. I have already tried one too and I have marmalade with peach in my refrigerator.

Well, have a good one! I am now going to visit a stable who take volunteers and they are allowed to ride to for volunteering in there stable.

Saturday – full of surprises

2015-09-13

Yesterday my day started with and Bridal Shower. The story behind this is that I met a lady namned Kim on the Shuttle to Macon (in Macon Professor Eric from the university picked me up to get to Milledgeville to the hotel 2 days ago). Kim told me that she came to Milledgeville because of here niece who had an upcoming wedding and now it was time for here Bridal Shower. When Kim told me about the Shower I told here about how the Swedes celebrate their brides before their wedding, which the Swedes know as embarrassing and maybe even painful. Kim was so surprised and wanted me to have a look at a nice Bridal Shower, the american way, so she invited med to her niece Samanthas Bridal Shower which was yesterday (Saturday). So I putted on the wonderful summer-dress my mum made ages ago and gave me as a present this summer. Then Beth, who lives with me, got me a ride to the Inn (Bed & Breakfast) which is not so far away from my new home, where the Bridal Shower was.

Here you can see Samantha unwrapping a present. Kim told me that a Bridal Shower is for “showering the bride with gifts”. Samantha got a lot of things like plates, glasses and silver for the kitchen but also frames and some lingerie. The guests of the Bridal Shower where invited to eat some snacks and drink the typical Southern sweetened tea and lemonade. The ice-tea they serve here is always sweetened with a lot of sugar. And Sallie already told me when I still was at home in Sweden that if I’d like to not have sugar in my tea I have to say that, because it is always sugar in it.

Here you can see Samantha in the middle and Kim on the right.

After the Shower everyone even got a little gift: a little bottle of hand-sanitizer that smelled so good 😀 So girls: I want to have an American Bridal Shower when I get married 🙂

After the Shower I went downtown to have a look at the city of Milledgeville. The thing is that I live pretty close to the city and I feel that I can walk to most of the places. People over here tend to take their cars everywhere and their are great distances between the most places, but as you could see on the picture, I was wearing my running-shoes, just so I could walk comfortable.

This is how the crossing looks like. People who drive are really precautions about people who walk over the street (even though the red light is on and their not supposed to walk), probably because if you would run over a person by car you would end up in jail or at least court.

As I walked downtown I came to an antique store called Auntie Bells Antiques. The name Auntie Bell comes from the style which is usual in Milledgeville: Antebellum or Ante-bellum. Antebellum refers to the period before the civil war in the united States. Their is a background of slavery involved, but as I don’t know much about that yet I might come tell you more about that later.

However, I went to that antique shop where my heart skipped a beat – their where so many nice things and even a lot of horse-relates things. So I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time I was inside, though it was hot, because it is so humid here.

In one of the shops I found this picture, which I find is so beautiful! Ok, I don’t think people should ride naked on their horses, but this picture shows you an Indian man riding a horse with nearly “no strings attached” and this is what I wish to accomplish with my horse Lovely one day – a communication build on trust and small, nearly transparent aids.

After walking to two different antique-shops I walked home again. And here’s a picture of the house that I live in. In the front you can see my 3 roommates cars, everyone has one of their own.

After talking with one of my roommates for a while I decided to go swim in a river that is nearby. This river has a strong stream so I didn’t swim far from the land, but it was just enough to cool down a little.

After my swim I thought I try to find a shortcut home, looking at my google-maps that had been downloaded with help of the Wifi at home. But the map did not apply to the path I found. Every time I tried to find the road on the map I found the following sign:

“Private property behind fence NO trespassing violators prosecuted” does the sign say. So imagine I got a little scared… I was lost. The good thing when you get lost is that you find a lot of new things on the way. While when you know where to go, you might not find all the wonderful things I could find.

Peacan-nuts, which Sallie told me are about mature now, a nice tree…

The river and the red soil, tiny little white mushrooms…

So even though I walked for a long while and got lost, I could hear birds sing, crickets play and the river flow. I did even see a little red bird, maybe a summer tanager.

Well, have a great day/night. I am going to met one of the former exchange students from Georgia today for “fika” who has visited Linneausuniversity and Växjö last semester.

The travel and my first days

2015-09-12

After more than 20 hours of travel I arrived at Milledgeville, Georgia, USA. It was a long journey, but I tried not to sleep so it would be easier for me to come into the rhythm. At the hotel I jumped into the bathtub and right after into the bed. 10 hours later I had my first american breakfast: american pancakes, fruitloops, nice coffee and yoghurt. I didn’t realize that everything would be served on plastic plates and with plastic-silver – easy for the staff to take care of “the dishes”.

After my breakfast I packed my bags again and Sallie Coke, my main contact in Georgia, picked me up and we drove to the university. Here she introduced me to everybody she knew and who I would have to know. I even got scrubs and the mandatory polo-shirt for working in the community. The students here wear scrubs at school in the clinical training center and at their clinical rotations at the hospital. They have a lab coat too, they can wear it when they sit in the classroom, over their scrubs when having lectures after/before training at the center. Because though the temperatures are warm and really humid outside, it can be cold inside because of the air-conditioning.

Sallie kindly showed me around in the clinical training center too, but I will tell you more about that with pictures when I get there, which will be on Monday.

I continued my day by getting picked up by my new roommate Anna. Anna is the person who so kindly answered to my add on the Facebook-group “Bobcats Exchange”, which is a group from students for students in Milly to sell and search for things. When I came to Annas house I met Jennie as well, who is the second out of three persons who live in this 4-room big house on one floor.

After I settled in the house and had talked to my wonderful boyfriend Emil on Skype, Anna had invited me to come with here and here friends and go eat at a place called Longhorn. Before entering the restaurant we went to a petstore where I found a newspaper just for bunnies (I am in loooove!) and this collar for dogs with a bottle-opener) – I found that acctually really weird…

At the restaurant I had a nice sallad, a really good soup, jalapeno-poppers and a bear. The girls told me that bear with oranges in it tastes really good, so I tried it and yes, indeed, I liked it! I had a really good time with the 5 girls who all where so nice and friendly to me. As they say: the Southern-manners are well known in this part of the country. As far as I have come everyone has been so nice to me and really openminded and happy to invite me into their lives, like I have been here for weeks. And at the restaurant I met my third roommate: Beth.

After the visit at the restaurant I had to buy myself some food. I haven’t told you yet, but I have an own refrigerator in my room! That is awesome! So we went to Walmart. The famous Walmart I have seen on tv for so many times! And I can tell you that I got confused… there was just SO MUCH TO CHOOSE FROM! I had a real hard time to find what I want, because it is not always easy to see what’s in a product, especially not if it is a precooked product, e.g. a pizza. But finding fair-treaded meat from america was a hard nut to crack too. Not the fair-traded part (which I couldn’t find) but on the package they wrote produced in 5 different countries. So it was hard to find how and where the meat was produced, but instead it was much more easy to choose between different percentages of fat/meat, e.g.: 10/90, 15/85, 20/80, 30/70. And trying to find something simple as olive-oil was hard too… because their are 100 different brands and sizes! In the end I went for the organic coconut-oil to try something new. Because coconut-oil can be used for frying but also as a skin product 🙂

Besides the collar vs. bottle-opener the americans seem to have a lot of cool inventions. This morning for instance I found this cooler in the kitchen of my roomies. I found this so cool! You could pull the cooler after you so you could take it to, say, a party!

So, this was my breakfast this morning. I couldn’t find a cheese-grinder so I am probably going to stop by IKEA in Atlanta one day so I can get one real for my roomies. Right now I use a carrot-peeler. Some Swedish inventions are really good I think. And of course it is Starbucks-coffe from a machine we have here, for my breakfast. Besides the Starbuckscoffe I was also able to buy swedish coffee from “Gevalia” for the instant-coffemachine. But, surprise, it is not for me. I bought it as a gift for my roomies.

So this is all from me right know. I hope you could get what I was trying to say, I still feel a little bit restricted in my English.

This weekend I am invited to a bridal-shower by a stranger I met on my journey and on sunday I am going to “fika” (in Sweden that means talking a coffee with something to eat, like a cake or sandwich) with Emily, a former exchange student from Linneaus-university in Växjö. She found me on the internet – what a wonderful place to met people!

Next week is going to start with visiting the clinical training center for the day and get drug-screened and leave blood-samples so I can start my clinical rotation.

Have a good one!

On my way to the United States of America

2015-09-01

I am about to start a big journey, I am going to participate in an Exchange with Georgia College State University (GCSU). Due to the fact that English is the main language spoken in the USA I am going to write my posts in English.

As you may know a journey never starts when traveling to your destination. The journey starts earlier when you plan all the practical things and, of course, in your head.

The journey to Georgia and GCSU is going to be the biggest and longest journey of my Life. I am really looking forwards to it and despite all the work I already have putted into it, I am happy to travel in just less then 2 weeks: sept 10 this year.

Georgia is a State in the South-East of the US. The climate is warmer then in Sweden and the summer this year was hot. The temperatures I will expect during my visit are the ones we have had in Sweden this summer: between 24-28´C.

The capital of Georgia is Atlanta, which has the largest aquarium in the World. GCSU is situated in Milledgeville, which is app. 2 hours cardrive from Atlanta. I am going to live in Milledgeville for 5 weeks, a town with app. 19 300 inhabitants.

Here is a list of preparation I had to do before my clinical rotation i Georgia:

– apply at the university for an exchange through my university (Linneas university) and GCSU

– apply for an exchange at GCSU

– send a lot of documents to GCSU

– apply for a VISA (J-1) at the embassy in Sweden (or Denmark, but I choosed Stockholm in Sweden; that’s a VISA that is used for exchange students like me. Would I only visit as a turist I wouldn’t need that kind of a VISA) -> go through all the paperwork and questions on the internet, pay your fee, book an appointment at the embassy, visit the embassy, leave your passport and wait fot it to come back in the mail with your VISA (if they approve…)

– get an ESTA (so you are allowed to get into the US)

– apply for a scholarship from through my university

– apply for an extra student-loan

– get all the paperwork sorted

– get even more papers for the clinical rotation

– find a housing in Milledgeville

– book a hotel room in Milly (that’s how people living in Milledgeville call there town)

– continue the contact between GCSU and me for all details

– book a flight to Georgia

– have a plan for Lovely, my horse-friend and Illy, our bunny-friend

– buy a converter for the electric plug

– buy cloth and shoes that are comfortable to travel with and for a warmer climate than here in Sweden

– fill a lot of small bottles with my personal lotions and shampoos for traveling

– buy a travel-pillow, -mask and earplugs

– pack my riding pants and shoes (in case of any fantastic horse-adventures)

– buy a lot of chocolate for all the nurses I am going to meet

– buy a pair of kakis (brown-greenish pants) which they wear as a school uniform

– buy a book “English for healthcare-personell” and read it… and do the exercises in it too…

– talk to all teachers so my clinical training in the US is going to get accepted as a clinical rotation in Sweden for my nursing-exam

Yes… that’s about all I can remember for now… A lookout of stuff to do in less words…

I do now plan to starting to pack my bags, just so I remember everything I need to carry with me…

Love

Madeleine

Ps: Fun fact of this blog-entry: Georgia is the home-land of Coca Cola.

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