Time flies

Well it has been amonth now here in England. Not just visiting and exploring castles and shops but REAL life! I'm exhausted! he he. I feel like I am slowly coming to terms with life here, but then today I went to the local shopping centre and was once again a little overwhelmed by it all. I mean fabulous shoping to be had!! But unfamiliar names, brands, shop layouts...etc. Infact in Mark's and Spencers I wandered around looking for the public restroom as after the 20min walk in the wind and chilly weather to get to the shops I was READY for a pit stop. I KNEW that M&S (as the locals call it) had such a facility...two shop assistants later and multiple missed turns through the Christmas area, home furnishings, a cafe, and the beauty department I finally found RELIEF! AH....

To be honest although some of you may not believe it I didn't buy anything for me...except for lunch out of my first UK paycheck. Oh wait I did I bought a planner for next year for the grand total of a pound. I instead bought Christmas cards as if I am to send them out on time I need to have them out by the end of next week! YIKES! And I bought a surprise for Mark for helping me out SO much over the past month. He has be SO helpful and generous as I am trying to get my footing here.

Work is going well. I am now flying "solo" okay not really as I am mostly working with my mentor and all the staff have been incredibly helpful. But I am no long supernumerary I am "in the numbers" YIKES. So far though it has been all good as the patients they are giving me are definitely within my scope of practice.

So what is nursing in England like. Well to be brutally honest. There are MANY differences, but I'm going to start with what is the same. People. Staff and patients alike. There are still some of the same challenges that you have to face. There are some people that you work with that no matter how hard you try they just don't like you and vise versa. Also when people get sick as a nurse what you do to get them better is NOT all that different in a different country. Yes scopes may be wider or narrower but ultimately you can do pretty much the same things to help them along a path of healing. I'll go into some of the differences over the following weeks as the become more cemented in my mind.

Sorry no pictures this week.