First Blog!

Hey guys,

So im now into my second week in Odense, Denmark and its been a great experience so far!

On arrival last week I was kindly welcomed from the train station and shown around by my buddy who is a friendly danish nursing student assigned by the university to help me get settled. Odense is a small relaxed town on the island of Fyn and is surrounded by nice countryside and not too far from the beach! I have everything I need with my accomodation and its close to my placement and the town center.

So my first placement is in the psychiatric department for children and adolescents and even though its on the hospital grounds its a disconnected building surrounded by greenery and feels very homely and relaxed. The building consists of three wards for different age groups, a small school for the clients, various activity rooms and a kitchen so all the food is freshly made. Im on a ward for adolescents and there is usually between 8 and 12 clients there at a time.

My mentor has been great with me getting settled, introducing me to nursing in Denmark and helping me clearly identify my learning objectives in relation to the placement. Each day I get to spend alot of time with the clients and there are scheduled activities which have all been fun to be involved in. Alot of the clients can speak english really well and its been a happy suprise for me to find that they enjoy to speak it and to interact with me. They are also teaching me danish (which is really hard!!) and they seem to really enjoy having a useful skill that they can share and help me with.

Alot of the nursing activities are role modeling and teaching life skills, medication, communicating with other professionals and families, providing a structured day and alot of activity therapies- games, drama, art and music etc. Its really enjoyable to work there, I feel its a great enviroment for the clients which really seems to focus on them having fun and building on their strengths and talents. I have been assigned to work with one client in particular who speaks fluent english and we both get on well. I have regular reflections with my mentor and she always trys to help me link my practice to relavant nursing theory which is really helpful.

In other news I get a free bike from the university! Denmark is very bike friendly and ive been enjoying exploring the surrounding area in my free time!

So thats enough for now, I will soon write again and put some pictures up on the blog! :)