The Not so Hateful Eight

I'm writing today from Washington DC after travelling through 8 states since my last blog (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia)! It sounds a lot more exciting than it was, most of it was just passing through on the Greyhound or Amtrak but I'm claiming each and every one of them!😂
But before I go off topic, I had a few more jobs to do before I left Houston last week. I had my presentation with some of the nursing students and faculty on Thursday. Dr. Gallagher had asked me months ago if I wouldn't mind sharing my project and where I was up to in my trip with them during the week and I agreed thinking it was months away and I could worry about it later! As it grew closer I did get a bit anxious about it, not about the speaking bit - anyone that knows me knows I've never had a problem with that whether it's 100 people or an empty room😅 I'm just not as great with the whole technology bit though. Usually when I need to do anything like that (such as setting up this blog!) I tell Gareth what I want and he makes it happen! And although he did offer to help I thought maybe I should tackle this one myself and created my very first solo Power Point - woo! It's the little victories sometimes!

Presentation time!

The presentation went really well actually, the students didn't know much about health care systems outside of the US and were really interested in how the NHS works and how on earth I managed to get 4 months off clinical work to travel the world, I had a hard time explaining that one myself!
I also got to sit in on a couple of other classes, one in particular was focused on international health care and nursing so it was the perfect opening for a discussion afterwards. We watched a video and a couple of the scenarios were specifically about discrimination and racism.

That feeling when your teacher told you you'd be watching a video in class😁

When we got to talking about it I found it fascinating as a lot of us shared or had witnessed similar experiences but the difference is the history in this part of the world. As Dr Gallagher said "You're in the South now, Kate". Many African American nurses (and people in general of course) can face huge problems when looking after certain (white) older people who are still deeply entrenched in beliefs which are long since thought to be unacceptable. Many of these people come from families where their parents owned slaves and they are slow to let go of those times and show complete contempt for African American nurses and are not in the habit of hiding it. Race issues are still such a volatile and tense subject across America but more so in the Southern states.

One of the faculty members herself has an Irish mother and black father and when she was born, in the 60's, there were still black and white hospitals in Texas (and other parts of the States I'm sure). Her mother had her in the white hospital thinking that her skin colour would be lighter as a new born and having a white mother and no one would notice. She was tipped off, luckily, by a member of staff that the other staff did know and were not feeding her daughter or doing the same checks etc. on her child because they knew she was black and that she'd better get her out of there ASAP. She did so and soon moved to Mexico City (an incredibly diverse city where they could live a bit more normally) where this woman grew up and it was fascinating to here all this from her perspective. The Civil Rights Movement feels like a life time ago for a lot of us but here I was speaking to a woman who was only in her fifties and segregation was still widespread throughout her childhood.
One last thing that I was fascinated with was how the hospitals here deal with stock going missing and saving money. They have locked trolleys (look a bit like a crash trolley) with all the meds in it so you can't just go grab 2 paracetamol for a patient, or anyone else for that matter. You scan the patients barcode and click on the drug you want. The screen tells you how many there are, how many you are getting and the new balance. They have something similar for equipment. All syringes, needles, tubing etc. are kept in locked cupboards under the same system. Apparently hospitals have noticed huge savings as stock and meds have, obviously, stopped disappearing.

Snazzy drug trolley

I can see how it would work though. I know from experience that when we run out of something on the ward you just run to the ward next door to borrow what you need but also usually take a few extra as you know it'll be a while before you get new stock. Bit of robbing Peter to pay Paul and it usually works both ways and ward staff share what they have pretty readily but it's not ideal.

I finished in Houston on Friday and decided to squeeze in 48 hours in New Orleans on my way East. And man it was worth it! Such an amazing city!

View of Jackson Square & the Cathedral from Washington Artillery Park

I got the overnight greyhound on Friday night and booked a walking tour for the next morning as I knew if I didn't have a plan I'd just lope around like a zombie for the day. It was pay what you like, started in Washington Artillery Park on the banks of the Mississippi River and right through the French Quarter, finishing in NOLA's most famous Cemetery giving a brief history of the city's colonial past from French to Spanish to French again and finally American! We also went to the house where Tennesse Williams lived while he wrote 'A Streetcar Named Desire'😍
It was a great start to the weekend! 

One of the oldest buildings in the city with American, Louisiana and New Orleans flags flying

Juat walking around the city was amazing, bands on every corner playing jazz, singing, dancing. You don't have to book a thing to enjoy New Orleans. I could've sat on the steps of the cathedral for hours just listening to it all.

When you put a couple of dollars in the hat and they pull you in for a selfie!

I also had a visit to my first Irish pub in the States as one of my best friends,Laura, told me that her aunt and uncle own a pub there so of course I popped over to say hello and watch the Saints play the New York Giants (Saints won!). In true Irish style, Carmel and Sean tried to get me to stay in New Orleans for another 2 weeks so they could buy me pints and bring me out to the house for a good minding!😄Carmel is actually a nurse though so it would have been tempting to stay as she has a lot of connections around the city and could've set me up in no time but we've decided that I'll have to go back instead!

Chilling with the gang in Finn McCool's bar, New Orleans

As I had my ticket to DC booked and Mary Liddy, neighbour and friend from home waiting for me, I had to crack on. After another incredible Amtrak journey (the American landscape really is stunning) I arrived in DC this morning. Mary is from my road at home and has lived here for years so I stopped off on the way to my next visit at the end of this week in NYC to see her and also use her washing machine! I've spent today catching up on emails and life admin - I'm always at my happiest when I've done my washing so today is a wonderful day😂

I'm off to New York on Thursday to spend some time at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill-Cornell and NYU Langone Health, another 2 visits made possible by Prof O'Donoghue at work.

I am going to miss just randomly seeing groups of older men in their Levis, cowboy hats, big moustaches and leather boots just hanging around in places like Calexico, El Paso, Dallas and Houston - I swear I couldn't help but gleefully jump up and down (mostly on the inside!) whenever I saw any of them! But I'm also glad to be heading East, I'll be seeing a few familiar faces in the coming weeks which is very welcome at this stage of the trip I have to say!
Keeping the no-flight tradition going another while longer by catching the Megabus up the way on Thursday morning.

Learning so many new things on every visit so looking forward to seeing what the next week has to bring! 

Slán go foill

Kate 😊