Differences Between England and Finland

England is so weird place. Everything is here in some way different. For example English people drive on the left side of road than in Europe everybody drives on right side of road. Now I know why it is like that! My roommate explained this for me.

--> In the past, everybody travelled on the left side of the road, because swordsmen preferred to keep to the left in order to have their right arm nearer to an opponent and their scabbard further from him.

Hah, so actually English people are right when they drive on left side of road!

Other weird staff: 

 • Sockets. (We had to buy transformers for our laptops that they will work here.)
 • Wall-to-wall carpet. It is so difficult to clean and it will collect dust.
 • There is two separate faucets for the warm and cold water. Water is always either cold or hot.. My boyfriend said that this is because of old legislation. Apparently, it was illegal to have mixer type taps in the UK. (In the past) There was somekind of belief that bacterias will spread if cold and hot water will get mixed.
• Doors open in. It is really difficult to get out from toilet, if it is small. English engineers, what is wrong with you!?
• Windows will open to upward than usually in Finland they will open to the side.

 


 Nursing in England and in Finland 

So is there any differences between Finnish and English nursing habits?
Yes there is.

Here everybody are washing their hands, but they don´t really use hand disinfection. I said about this for one nurse and she said that she doesn´t want to use hand disinfection, because it will cause skin irritation. I tried to explain that nowadays there are plenty of good hand sanizators and they should not irritate your skin. I use hand sanizator, because I have learnt that it has a superior antimicrobial efficacy compared to hand washing. Washing hands should be preferred only when the hands are visibly soiled. Well I think she didn´t really listen to me and that she believes that washing hands is more effective way to remove bacterias.

The second big difference is lunch breaks. I´m so hungry here! I have used to eat about 11am, but here you can eat your lunch not until 1pm! And even then you can´t really relax. Nurses eat front of reseption desk and they have to be ready to help patients. It isn´t really nice that patients can watch when you are eating.

Generally Finnish nurses have better aseptic conscience than English nurses. (Or we have more knowledge about hygienia and aseptic thecniques..) Here nurses can´t put on sterile cloves or do sterile table for operation without contaminating them. Of course some nurses can, but generally it is like this. Once I saw when nurse did proper sterile table, but then she arranged all the staff on the table by hand. Not really sterile anymore.. :D

English nurses are so friendly and social. This is something what Finnish nurses should learn from. They are always smiling and asking from patients: "Would you like to have tea or caffee? How are you? How is your family?"

Hoo's the Toon gannin? How is the Newcastle United match progressing?

 Yes, it was a little Geordie tasting.

The weather has been awesome this week! (or as the Geordie would say: bonny day the day). I’ve done sunbathing in the nearest park when I’ve had some spare time. So the match (I mentioned earlier) was today! I went with my French friend; she is one of our flat mates. The match was awesome, especially for Newcastle (Newcastle 2 - Liverpool 0). Not bad!

This week we had the ultimate Finnish night, we (Ansku and me) made Finnish food; Karelian pies, Karelian hot pot and apple-oat-pie for dessert. Of course we had to have a little presentation about unknown Finland! The food was success, everybody enjoyed. Earlier we had African night what was arranged by one of our flat mates. It was really nice break during our busy week.

Somebody asked about differences between a nursing education in UK and Finland. Nursing students in England studies three years and have to choose the branch at the beginning (or actually before starting). I’m not sure about the alternatives but at least there are the children and adults what to choose. As you can imagine, the actual field of studies “go deeper” than in Finland although they have to choose a branch in some part of Finland (nursing students) also. I didn’t know this earlier, just met few Finnish student nurses from Tampere last week and I got this information J What comes to practical skills; nursing students in England are not usually allowed to cannulate during practical periods and in some wards even registered nurses can’t cannulate before a specific education. That’s why I think that we are in a very good position in Finland. In some ward it’s also forbidden that a student nurse gives intravenous medication to patient. Otherwise the education is more than less the same.

I’ve really enjoyed in my placement among children even though I can’t rehearse all the practical skills there. The learning objectives to this placement are focused to communication and observations. What have I done?

• Assessment (includes also observations)
• Documentation (a lot of paperwork)
• Observations (pulse, respiration rate, blood pressures, temperature, fluid conditions, diarrhea observations (and stool), urine samples and analyses ect.

I’ve learned a lot of different kinds of conditions and illnesses what the children have: mostly about head injuries breathing problems, wounds and bone fractures. The latest skill, what I learned, was eye - and movement observations when it comes to a head injury. I found it interesting, especially with infants.

It’s going to be soon over but at least I’ve got some time to study, actually to be honest with you I’m going to have a holiday! I really need some rest now… SORRY, not more pics right now--> under way ;) And NO. We are not writing together (except in Feb);  the three latest ones are from me (Sini).

Tara now, pet!