Heading for the Deep South

Howdy!
I'm here in Houston, Texas where I've spent the last couple of days in the Jane and Robert Cizik School of Nursing (so named because they donated 25 million to the nursing school, gives you some idea of how things work here).

It's part of what's known as the Texas Medical Centre and covers an area of over 2 square miles - one of the biggest in the world. It consists of 21 hospitals, 4 medical schools, 7 nursing schools and a whole host of other health related facilities - it's immense!
I met Dr. Martina Gallagher at the beginning of the week who showed me around and talked me through how they do things at Cizik. Martina is an Associate Professor of Nursing and Clinical Director in the University and has a lot of contacts n the surrounding hospitals. On day one we went to MD Anderson, a world renowned cancer hospital and research facility. Debbie Cline runs a nurse extern programme there and is also the project lead for their Magnet Programme.
For anyone who hasn't heard of Magnet, it is a recognition programme run in the US for hospitals who truly value nursing talent. It's hard to earn and hospitals must show a commitment to education and development through every stage of a nurses career to be granted Magnet Status. It is something that has recently been introduced in the UK and NUH are vying to be one of the first hospitals to obtain Magnet Status. MD Anderson are applying for their 5th Magnet term.

Fanceh

It was great to discuss this with Debbie as being a 5 time Magnet awarded centre must mean that they are doing something right for their nursing staff and happy nurses mean happier patients!
It was great to discuss the residency programmes they have in place for newly graduated nurses (externs) and how much they encourage nurses working on research, positive change and continuing education.

Martina, myself & Debbie

I also spent some time with some of the Martina's nursing students this week and we had a really interesting discussion about the differences in healthcare around the world. I felt like I knew a lot because of what we see in the media but some of what they told me is staggering. It's relatively common, for example, for a homeless person or a person without insurance or means to pay for their care to be put into a taxi and sent to a drop off point near a homeless shelter. Sometimes still in their hospital gown or even with a cannula in, disorientated, confused and clearly not fit for discharge. Now obviously I'm in a big city and things like this happen more in big cities and I don't want to paint everyone with one brush but it beggars belief that this can happen in the 21st century. What it comes down to though is money. Profits. Business plans and bank account balances coming before patients. And what can a newly qualified nurse do in this situation? Advocate for the patient and refuse to discharge? Of course, that's exactly what should happen. But in a country without the same employee protections and rights that we take for granted in the EU (Brexit is coming for us...) do that too many times and you're out on your backside. Most people have health insurance through their work. Lose your job, lose your health insurance and you're not too far from needing a homeless shelter yourself.
This is corporate America.
And I don't want to get all preachy here but this is what is in danger of happening to the NHS. With bits of it discretely being sold off here and there nice and quietly things are starting to be run like a business. With the people who have control over what happens to the NHS all able to afford private health care (there are VIP floors on the hospitals here in Houston that you must have federal access to even work in, people like the Bush family get looked after in the penthouse) privatising it and making a profit is music to their ears.
It is one thing I have always noticed living in England as an outsider. You have no idea how lucky you all (y'all? Too much?😂) are. It seems to just be totally accepted that free, excellent healthcare is the norm when really it is the exception. Sure, the NHS has it's faults BUT IT'S FREE! I couldn't believe it the day I landed in Exeter and I still can't believe it now. Anyways, sorry, this always gets me going as I don't want the UK to lose one of the best things about it!
Although it's not all bad over here, one of the things I'm very jealous of are their patient to nurse ratios - 4:1!!! And that actually happens! Staff shortage isn't the problem over here but, in fairness, they've got enough to try to tackle by the sound of things!
So tomorrow, I head to Memorial-Hermann Medical centre in the morning and then back to the nursing school in the afternoon to give a presentation to some of the faculty and students about my trip and what we are trying to achieve in NUH. Yikes!
Before I go I do have to mention my Greyhound journey to get here. I've heard such nightmare stories about them - they're late, people on them harass you, they're dirty etc. But I decided to do it anyways! It's a bit of a right of passage for European travellers in the States and the longer the journey, the better! Mine took 3 days, with one night in a motel (I stayed in a motel and didn't get murdered! Woo!) and one over-nighter on the bus itself and it was grand! Now, partly I just lucked out. None of my buses were delayed but I met many people who had been waiting hours so I can only thank my lucky stars mine were on time. It also meant that I got to drive through the desert of Arizona and New Mexico which was honestly like something out of the old Westerns we used to watch on TG4 at home!

I changed in Dallas for Houston and had a couple of hours there so I got to go the JFK Memorial Plaza then wandered down to Dealy Plaza alongside where he was actually shot and The Grassy Knoll where conspiracy theorists say a second shooter was situated. I wouldn't have seen any of that if I'd flown!

John F Kennedy Memorial Plaza

With that in mind and bearing in mind the amount of flying I did at the start of this trip I was loath to get on another plane so have now booked Greyhounds, megabus or Amtrak the whole way up the East Coast (after a weekend in New Orleans via bus, naturally!) through DC, New York, Boston and back across to Canada! It may be mad but as Frank Sinatra said, I did it my way😁

Kate