Hospital Experience
While at Coventry, our group visited two hospitals in the area: George Eliot and Caludon Centre.
George Eliot Hospital
The George Eliot hospital was a wonderful experience in learning and understanding the British health care system and hospitals. One of the first differences between their hospital and the ones in the states is the patients are in wards rather than private rooms. If they have private rooms, it is because they are too sick or contagious to be with other patients. I have never been on the clinical side of hospitals, but I have been enough times to notice this difference. I think people in the US would be very unhappy with being in the same room as five other people because they are so used to having their own room, where they feel they have some privacy.
Another difference was that George Eliot does not use technology to record their notes, they solely use paper. I was talking to a family friend who is a nurse in England, and she said that the large hospitals in the UK do not use paper anymore, but that the process has been slow to change to technology for the smaller hospitals. I also noticed the difference in uniforms for each position that is at the hospital, which was interesting to see. For instance, the students from Coventry have different uniforms than the nurses; and the charge nurse has a different uniform than the other nurses. It is kind of similar to the US, but the nurses in each area of the hospital have different colored scrubs, whereas uniforms change depending on your position as well as area of the hospital in the UK.
Caludon Centre
The Caludon Centre is a mental hospital, that has two locations. I started off at the main location and went to shadow the charge nurse of one ward. I was in a female ward (the wards are separated by gender) with a nurse named Mercy. She told me that the main illness in her ward was personality disorder. I got to see their clinic where they store all of the medications and see their process of handing out medications based on medicine cards that each patient has. Mercy also explained that there is never an open bed in the ward because there are so many people wanting and needing to get in. I was impressed by Mercy and the other staff in the ward; despite it being very busy and a bit chaotic, they were always calm and collected. The staff worked well together, which I think was a very important part of the ward running smoothly. I gained a lot of respect and admiration for nurses who work in mental health because nursing as is can be difficult, but mental health requires different leadership and skills that are not always seen in other health settings.
After lunch, I went to the other location which is where dementia patients and out patient clinic is located. The out patient clinic has patients of varying illnesses and conditions that go for the day to do counseling and treatment for their illness. We walked around with the manager of the art projects, and you could tell he loved his job! He proudly showed us the artwork that he helped the patients create; what they were able to do with their small budget was incredible. The manager explained that art therapy was very helpful for their patients, because it helps them focus on what is going on in the present rather than the past or future. The staff and center were amazing in their passion for helping other improve and heal. I felt that it was a wonderful learning experience.