Today is Monday and a great day! We are coming to the end of our time in Birmingham and I am very sad. However, I am very excited to go to London and do all of the touristy things for a day. Today, we woke up somewhat early and took a nice walk to BCU. We then had lectures. Then we had a break for lunch where I had pie and fruit. Then we did a super fun escape room where we had to put everything that we learned together to solve the codes. After that, we had a bit of time to work on our presentations, which we eventually presented. We celebrated after and went to dinner at a yummy Indian restaurant.

All About The Lectures

First, we had a lecture from two women in education about General Practice. It was very interesting and I definitely learned a lot. We learned more about the NHS and how everyone pays a tax and a small amount funds the NHS. This is so that everyone can get the care that they need. Something interesting is that before 2004, there was no contract between the NHS and GP’s. People would sign up on a list but now they work together to make a difference. Although the NHS allows for free medical health, patients still need to pay for prescriptions. However, there are situations where one does not have to. These include pregnancy and long term illnesses such as cancer and diabetes. Something else that is interesting is the care that is given to the patients is given on a priority basis. This was bad after the pandemic and so now patients go to a pharmacy first to free up GP’s. Also, there were several tips that the lecturers gave us when it came to being nurses and what nurses do to help. First off, they mentioned what nurses should do for each other. For example, it is important to make sure they feel needed and know their worth. One can never know everything about everything so it is important to reach out for help. If a nurse is not comfortable with something then they should not do it and ask someone else for help. Then, the jobs of nurses were talked about. The goal of nursing is to give everyone the care that they need and look at research. The integrated care system board looks at everything going on and also fund different sources. Also, the Quality Outcome Framework is a benchmark and targets that nurses have to reach. Lastly, the media plays a large role nowadays so we have to make sure we are educating the patients so they do not go off of incorrect data and knowledge.

Next, we were able to talk to two actual General Practice nurses. I thought that it was really interesting to hear about what they had to say and I enjoyed hearing about what they do every day. They also had great advice as to why nursing is the best profession. I decided to write about some things that they talked about. First, General Practice nurses do a lot of skills and not one type of specialty. Their job is to try to help with primary care and keep people out of the hospitals. There is something different happening every day. They try to manage so not as many patients have to go to the hospital. They really enjoy when students come and observe for a week. The nurses work with all ages starting with babies. The reasons that the nurses said that they enjoyed this specific nursing job was that they get to work by themselves and there is a lot of support. They also enjoy being able to get to know their patients and their patient’s family. By doing so, they build really strong relationships. Lastly, they told us about how nursing is the best practice and they love helping people. They love to make a difference. One last thing that they mentioned was that there will be days where you will be crying and other days where you will be laughing. I really thought this was a good ending and they made me realize that nursing is the right profession for me. I can not wait to make more differences in people’s lives.

Escaping The Boxes

After the lectures, we had a really fun escape room where we went from task to task. It was really nice to work as a team and we were able to open up every box and solve every puzzle. In each box, there were different medical tools which were fun to hold and learn how they work. Afterwards, we practiced for our presentation. We were all worried but we knew that we were going to do really well. We had heard that there were a lot of people coming.

The Presentation

Finally, we did our presentation about Mental Health for adolescents in the United States and in the United Kingdom. It was very successful and it ended up not being as bad as we thought. The audience seemed really interested and seemed really impressed. I was really proud of myself and my group because it was crazy that we started from scratch a few weeks ago and now we were able to present in front of so many people. I learned so much about the mental health topic in both countries and I am so happy that I got to share what I found. I also hope that we could make a difference with our research. 

In conclusion, today was an amazing day and I learned so much. Not only did I learn more about nursing, but I also learned more about myself. I learned that I am able to present in front of a large audience and do not have to be nervous. Although there was small one hiccup, I was able to understand the little switcheroo that was made in the presentation. It was also super fun to have a celebratory dinner as well. Tomorrow I am super excited to go to the nursing home as well! Until then!