Sjuksköterskestudenter utomlands

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.