Today we took a tour of The Neville Williams House in Birmingham. This is a Nursing Home with 50 residents living here. We started by looking around the building and the main areas where the residents sit. Then we met with nurses one-on-one and shadowed them with what they do daily. I accompanied a nurse as she distributed the morning medications to the residents. This takes a good bit of time as she must go to all the wings. Procedures include counting out, sorting, and recording the medication. She was telling me that recently the UK government wanted the medication sent to homes in the boxes now. While the past procedures included prepackaged medication. This does create more work for the nurses as they must rifle through and store them all. As we walked through I noticed that there are little pop-up shops or hairdressers in the building. These are mostly for Dementia patients who have memory issues and to remind them of what life used to be like. It can be an escape from the home they are living in now. This also makes them feel like they are leaving the building without going outside. I think that is a lovely and great addition to these homes.

Amongst the workers, they are very professional and work hard together. They are also professional with the residents. They have strong rapport and respect for one another. They also are very accommodating and understanding of the patients. Having an attitude like that is important for this career as you must be passionate and caring to be able to take care of people during this vulnerable part of their life. The nurse I was walking with kept explaining the rules and such that go into distributing medication to the residents. 

We then sat down and talked with some of the residents. They had their morning tea and talked with us about their interests. Two were retired teachers who taught art and economics. Some of them were very talkative, others quiet, and had a hard time keeping up with conversations. The man next to me was very soft-spoken and read the newspaper over and over again. On the other side of me was a woman who enjoyed talking. She was repetitive in her questions but every time she asked the question with the same type of enthusiasm. We enjoyed hearing from them and having these discussions. Even though I am not a nursing major, this is important for my future career to help further develop my compassion and empathy. Teaching is a career that requires lots of patience and understanding. On this trip, I have been in many different settings that teach me how to work with others who are struggling or leaving my comfort zone and trying something new out.

With my prior knowledge of nursing homes in America, the Neville Williams House has figured out the problems with the ones back home. All the stories and experiences I’ve heard from Nursing Homes are rather negative. Now there are great Nursing Homes in the US. The majority of them are struggling due to staff shortages. With these staff shortages, the American systems are failing since they must resort to not the best options for their residents. The compassion and excitement of the nurses at this home were inspiring. They made the home happy for the residents and made us as visitors very welcome.

After our day at the Nursing home, we went back to BCU. During our time at BCU, we had two lessons. The lectures were about Endometriosis and Menstrual Poverty. Our lecture started by talking about how common endometriosis is and how little we talk about it. Much of the talk and research about endometriosis is outdated and no longer accurate. Due to such strong stigma and lack of recognition, many women with endometriosis go unnoticed or with little urgency. There are so many different symptoms when it comes to Endometriosis. They consider it a full-body condition. Ranging from mental effects to extreme period pain and pronounced bloating. Since they have cut down on great funding for this issue, there’s not much research going into finding new preventative measures. The only adamant way of diagnosing someone is through surgery. This is pretty invasive and is treated as a last-resort effort. Again the backlog in the UK health system is causing more problems. The amount of time it takes for women to get diagnosed is getting longer and leading to more issues. It is disheartening to hear about because infertility is such a scary topic to me. The thought of having reproductive issues is saddening and needs new planning to help the women it affects. Prioritize women who are explaining their symptoms and listen. Not even about reproductive issues but all across the medical system. Medical Gaslighting is growing in prominence as women are repeatedly disregarded and told that their pain is not as bad as they are explaining. That they are being dramatic and do not understand what they are feeling. Finally, we discussed Menstrual Poverty, something I am blessed to not have to worry about in my life. It is an issue of how expensive period products are and how many can’t even afford food to eat. There are free period products in the bathrooms at Pitt-Greensburg and it’s wonderful that those are available for the ones who need them. I do believe the pink tax needs to be tackled. Luckily in Pennsylvania, we do not have any taxes on paper products which include our period products.