The first week of the MINE project has come to an end, and I honestly don't know where the time has gone.
On Tuesday we embarked upon a virtual tour of Europe, viewing all the student made video's from each country. I found this really interesting as each country had such a unique style, and a very different balance of university information and local information.
After the virtual tours each country prepared a food market stall packed with their traditional specialities and of course lots of alcohol. I spent most of my time gravitating towards the Italian stall, feeling a little embarrassed about our pork pies and Marmite (Although I do love pork pies and Marmite!) This was a great opportunity to socialise with the group on the whole.
On Wednesday we learnt about learning theories, it made me think about how much I've changed as a learner. I found school impossible as I have a fairly weird way of absorbing information and it wasn't until I became an adult learner that I learnt how to effectively structure my learning. This structure is of course influenced by who I am and how I see the world, and I would imagine everyone learns in a slightly different way due to individual perceptions and within this individual perceptions there are both strengths and limitations. The reflective process is helpful in considering the limitations of perception and has made me think about the importance of good communication skills.
In fact the MINE project so far has made me very thoughtful indeed!
Thanks for reading.
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
MINE project- Captain's blog no.2
So I'm glad I waited until the second day to blog, as Alex nicely explained what the reflective cycle is today, and before this point I thought it was just an excuse to rant.
Yesterday we were shown around the hospital in Pori, it was a very interesting experience partly because I kept thinking about the tag line for the TV show 'Generation Kill'- 'Observe everything, admire nothing'. However there was much to admire, the hospital felt calm and almost homely in comparison to my last hospital placement at North Middlesex Hospital in north London. The tag line from generation kill is relevant because I often think we forget how biased our perceptions can be, observations is possibly the most valuable tool that nurses have, but we are often influenced by our own value systems and do not observe but instead interpret.
As we walked around and I began thinking about nurse/patient ratio's, how much I'd like to kick David Cameron and about how my new career seemed like pushing a boulder up a hill, as all these thoughts spiralled and I started to feel a little angry.
At this point I remembered to 'observe everything', in this moment of observation it occurred to me that the entire population of Finland is 5.4 million in a space of 130,596 sq miles, and London has a population of 13.9 million in 607 sq miles, they are different places with very different cultural and healthcare issues. Simply looking at a quiet ward and assuming this means less sick people and better healthcare would be a naive assumption, it does however make me want to learn about their systems and their problems and here in lies the beauty of exchange programs! The process of comparison is paramount in assessing our individual strengths and weakness, through this experience we have the opportunity to look at our own healthcare systems with fresh eyes, learn from each other and allow our systems to grow and not just stagnate.
Yesterday we were shown around the hospital in Pori, it was a very interesting experience partly because I kept thinking about the tag line for the TV show 'Generation Kill'- 'Observe everything, admire nothing'. However there was much to admire, the hospital felt calm and almost homely in comparison to my last hospital placement at North Middlesex Hospital in north London. The tag line from generation kill is relevant because I often think we forget how biased our perceptions can be, observations is possibly the most valuable tool that nurses have, but we are often influenced by our own value systems and do not observe but instead interpret.
As we walked around and I began thinking about nurse/patient ratio's, how much I'd like to kick David Cameron and about how my new career seemed like pushing a boulder up a hill, as all these thoughts spiralled and I started to feel a little angry.
At this point I remembered to 'observe everything', in this moment of observation it occurred to me that the entire population of Finland is 5.4 million in a space of 130,596 sq miles, and London has a population of 13.9 million in 607 sq miles, they are different places with very different cultural and healthcare issues. Simply looking at a quiet ward and assuming this means less sick people and better healthcare would be a naive assumption, it does however make me want to learn about their systems and their problems and here in lies the beauty of exchange programs! The process of comparison is paramount in assessing our individual strengths and weakness, through this experience we have the opportunity to look at our own healthcare systems with fresh eyes, learn from each other and allow our systems to grow and not just stagnate.
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