Welcome to the red room

I realized this morning my room has such an interesting red glow when the morning sun shines through it.

Night city

Iasi by night

Street art

This is popping up all around town, not sure what it's supposed to mean but it looks quite interesting to me.

A walk by the river

Another year older!

 

My first and most likely only birthday in Romania! Card's a cupcake and my own special birthday treat for myself decent tea!!! It's been a lovely day, many thanks to those who made it special.

Good home cooked food

Traditional Romanian food cooked for me by my housemate, I'm starting to feel better already! Super tasty!!! 

It's not the cough that carries you off...

Unfortunately I am ill today, I've been coughing all week but it got worse. My flatmate took me to the chemist and I got some cough medicines in the hope of at least easing it up enough to make it bearable. When I came back with my little bag of remedies, I noticed this lil fella on the bag!

The warm heart of Romania

The Sun sets on my first week in Romania, it has been an eventful and interesting experience for me. The trams are old, dogs roam the streets (but appear well fed). The A+E department is fast paced and very changeable. The thing that strikes me most this week however is just how friendly and hospitable the people I have met have been, my house mate has made every effort to help me and show me around; my colleague has given up some of their precious time off to show me a bit of the city and take me to an event, and just moments ago the neighbor invited me to their place for something to drink and a chat. I have traveled a fair bit, but here I have seen hospitality way above and beyond what I would have expected in the short time I have been here.

Putting the T in good night.

The night finished with a splendid cup of tea, luckily my colleague and his friend know where to find good tea in Iasi!

Fairytale Romania

Iasi has it's very own fairy tale castle!

Chairing culture

The flowers on the back of this chair are a traditional design

Good food and company

My new colleague rather kindly showed me around the city a little. I got to sample some dishes from neighbouring Moldova..... seriously people you should try this food, it's amazing!

Eat before you shop!

 

As the sun was setting on Iasi I went shopping. 

My advice is don't go shopping when you are hungry, I bought up half the shop!

Dog tired Friday

Well, I have to say I am glad it's Friday. I'm feeling a bit like this little fella today.

Old ground, new possibilities

Took a little walk through the hospital grounds today. I was told that some parts of the buildings are around 300 years old. Today was a long day, honestly I have a lot of admiration for those who choose this path in medicine their dedication and hard work mean that many people who otherwise would be dead are alive today!

So here I think is a good place to talk more about my experience of nursing here in Romania. I think the first thing nurses from countries like the UK and Finland will notice is that some of the equipment is quite old, the beds are mostly manual as opposed to electric and some are quite damaged as they are so old this makes ergonomic practice quite difficult it seems quite a few nurses have back pain as a result. This also extends to equipment like wheelchairs, manual handling is at times quite challenging as a result.
Uniforms are not provided by the hospital, you can see a rainbow of colours in staff uniforms and at times it is not always obvious who is the nurse and who is the Dr, however the effect is quite beautiful and I value the individual freedom it allows. 
Work hours are typically 12 hours and the breaks are not official, so the day is very long. There are plenty little shops and cafes dotted around the hospital grounds and this is where we go when we need coffee or delicious pretzels (the ones covered with poppy seed and salt are amazing).

The rooms are divided by colour depending on the urgency of treatment required:
Red- this is for the most urgent cases, usually only 3 patients at a time are in this room
Yellow- This room is for intermediate needs patients and is by far the most crowded, I would dread to be working this room as it has no outside facing areas, so no windows, It gets hard to breath in this room.
Green- Often the patients here were not so urgent, basic wound care is the most common treatment in this room, however at times more serious traumatic  wound care happens here.
Blue- Non urgent cases, often awaiting results or to be moved to a specialist ward.
ICU- there are two small intensive care wards this seems to act as an area for more serious patients when their is not enough room in the actual ICU unit.

The relationship between nurses and doctors here is that the Dr's are in the position of absolute authority, this is a little strange for me as in Finland the division is not so obvious.

Emergency care in Romania is the only part of the healthcare that is free to everyone, this means that often those that can't afford health insurance will wait until they get very ill to seek treatment. For my mind this is a good argument for free universal healthcare, the cost in human life, suffering and of course also actual financial cost is much higher if people feel they cannot afford to get treatment when they get ill. 

Religion is very important here in Romania and you will as a result of this see icons of Saints and Jesus throughout the hospital. Their is a small shrine in the triage office and porters room to several staff who died due to a air ambulance crash that happened some years ago.

Patients are often although not exclusively older people. This means that communication is often a challenge as many are hard of hearing and do not speak English. I learned some Romanian and found that this combined with polite gestures allowed me to navigate most situations. When I needed help to communicate, then usually one of my awesome supervisors would usually assist me.

I feel that during my time here my nursing skills improved considerably, and of course when you don't have the most modern equipment you need to know a few tricks that are very helpful. My supervisors were so patient and friendly and many of the other staff were helpful to this student. This is the lasting memory I have of people here in Romania, people are often very kind and friendly. What this country lacks in wealth it makes up for in heart.

My favourite cultural experience!

Well it's the end of a long day. Time to savor the flavour of Romania!

Bank of Transilvania... is it a blood bank?

Will I ever get tired of this.... probably not. I would open an account but I fear what the deposit might be!!!

My first view of blue skies in Romania

My journey to a bigger journey

Taking the tram to my placement this morning, didn't know what to expect. On the whole I was pleasantly surprised. The staff were kind and very friendly, I saw patients come in who must have been in some terrible pain but they faced it well on reflecting I wondered if I could do the same. Tomorrow is a new day, and ever day is different in the hospital, I expect I will learn a lot in my time here.

Putting the T in culture shock!

Culture shock! It seems that they don't sell black tea in the shops here.... people just don't drink tea. Luckily I brought some with me but stocks are dwindling. As a British person I may well die without  tea...... If I don't find it soon I may have to send out a distress call to the British embassy!!!

 

Today's mission was to find veggie food. Such a relief, I don't fancy living of cabbages and potatoes for the next few months!

It's such a Lidl world

Is it Turku? Is it Manchester? No it's Iasi.. some places look the same no matter where you are in the world. Welcome to Lidl's global brand of global bland. If I get homesick maybe I will hide here for awhile.

Enchanted by night

I went for a walk last night. When I see these shop lights in the dark I feel it looks so enchanting. Better not to look too close though or the magic will fade.

Start wearing purple

So it seems I will be working in the accident and emergency for the next few weeks. Feeling a little nervous about this as I know it can be quite a chaotic environment. The staff seem nice though, and one of the guys I will be working with advised me it's good to have my own tourniquet. Here it is, my very own purple tourniquet!!!

Iasi here I am.

Street view somewhere near the city centre. Today I got a tram back to where I am staying. There was an argument between an old guy and another guy who came on the tram and played the accordion. Almost felt like I was in the UK, except I didn't understand a word of it..

Wire wolves

Wire wolves, not dire wolves nor wire wool!

Dracula's summer retreat.

If Dracula has a summer residence in Iasi I suspect it may be this place. 

Check out how green that roof is!!!

 

Interesting graffiti I saw whilst looking around today. 

So here it is Gt Popa university. This is my host uni for the next two and a half months. 

Looks pretty grand eh?

My first purchase in the local shop. Is it a Romanian flag? Is it a chocolate bar? It's both!!! 

A chocolate bar and cultural experience all at the same time!!! 

All for under one leu!

It occurs to me that I should write a little about myself.
I am a third year nursing student. I study in Finland and am originally from the UK. For my final nursing placements I decided to come to Romania, this blog is a part of my optional studies, I will try to make regular updates and post pics as my experience here unfolds. Feel free to comment, question or make suggestions.

When I awoke this morning, I looked out of the window. Hmm still looking like Manchester, the rain and grey skies make me feel right at home!

My new home

  

Upon arrival I was greeted by my new room mate. This is where I will be staying for the next few months. What happened to my other leg you ask? I have no idea, I will look for it in the morning...

On arrival I was greeted with rain. It's gonna be a good experience, even the city tries to make me feel at home! :-)

The sun balanced gloriously upon the wing of the plane as I made my way to Iasi

In preparation for my journey to Romania I recruited these fine fellows!