Sigh of relief! Today was so much better compared to yesterday. Katie and I walked in the hospital doors ready to work and to prove that we can do this! That is exactly what we did!! To start the day off, Anna took us the CDU, which stands for the Clinical Decision Unit. Basically this is where patients go that aren’t sick enough to be admitted, but not well enough to go home. Or sometimes it is a patient who just needs to be observed for a few more hours or days to make sure they are stable enough before going home. I really liked this ward, way better than the acute admission ward that we are normally on.
For the first hour or so Katie and I just shadowed Anna around the ward. She went a lot slower and talked through the process of what she was doing. We also would go and talk to the patients to get a full background of the medical history with a focus on their medications. At one point, everything was starting to get really hectic because this ward has a lot of turnover. Anna was on the phone with a doctor, so Katie and I took the initiative to go get the medical background on a patient with a simpler case. I had noticed earlier that this patient was American, so that gave Katie and I a boost of encouragement sinde we all spoke the same lingo and were familiar with the drugs. One of the patients medication was a blood pressure med that is not used in the UK, so when Anna saw this she had no clue what it was. It felt so good to show her we weren’t dumb Americans and that we could handle this. I think this was the turning point of the day.
There were several other points within the day where we noticed that Anna was impressed with answers we gave and wiliness to learn and work. By the end of the day Anna was letting us go on our own to review charts. After we had some time to think about what we were reviewing, we would report to her and talk about what suggestions we had. I still have a lot to learn and work on, but Anna was doing a fabulous job teaching and encouraging us in our efforts!
I do have one funny moment I would like to share…ok, so here is the background to make this story better. So I am pretty sure I shared this story on the day we went to Oxford, but we had several moments when people made it very clear that they thought Americans were dumb. Instead of making us feel bad, it boosted our patriotism. Since then it has become the norm for Katie or myself to yell Am-er-i-ca, with a somewhat foreign accent, like maybe a high pitched Italian? But today Anna and a few other pharmacists were looking for this notebook to leave a note for the weekend staff to see before we left for the day. Katie and I are always thinking to ourselves that in America we would notate this on a computer in which everything is connected to and thus you wouldn’t have to look for a notebook. So as they are frantically turning the place upside down, I walk past Katie, giving a fist pump and say “A-mer-i-ca!” very quietly. However, as I said it they all came walking past me and towards Katie so she got real choked up trying not to laugh. Basically, all day Katie and I were holding back laughter since we get such a kick out of the repetitive phrases people say. Cough cough…Bits and Pieces. Cool, Cool, BRILLIANT…cough cough.
After work Katie and I wanted something good for dinner. We ended up meeting Emma at her flat, then taking a bus towards Fulham/Chelsea. We ate at a tasty place called MexiCali. It was the perfect way to end a good day because who doesn’t love some good TexMex!! The only thing better would have been a margarita to drink with my quesadilla. Oh well, maybe next time or when I get back to the states!
After dinner, Katie and I caught a different bus to a tube station and headed toward the Daniel house. We chatted with some peeps in the house, then I got on skype with my fam. Did you know you can skype 3 ways now!? Well we did! It was my brother in KY, my parents in TN, and me in the UK. It was SMASHING!! Now I am typing this before I head to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a jam packed day because we are going south to BRIGHTON!!! Yay for peppily beaches and board walks J Cheers Yall!
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