Thursday 18th February 2010,

Already nearly one week has passed since our London visit. The last three days were great. Everything culminated in one big event last Friday. An excellent conference took place last Friday at the Barn in Hendon. It was a group effort from everybody. Although everyone came from differnt countries the whole thing evolved into one idea. The tool kit that the students presented was good...May it be implemented in the near future as it will be of great help to futher Erasmus Students. Us mentors also presented a mentor's tool kit. Maybe that assesment tool will be developed so that we will have more Erasmus mentors.
The organisation was great...friendships were made....may they be long lasting ones...
The dinner at Brick Lane was brilliant... another culteral aspect of London, sort of Little India...food was excellent...
I stayed in London till monday On Saturday saw WE WILL ROCK YOU another musical a tribute to Freddie Mercury and Queen Spetacular show and good music...I also saw the Chinese celebrate their NEW YEAR the year of the Tiger...another multiculteral aspect in this marvellous city..

Returning back home very late on Monday night, I found my daughter aand son waiting for me...Good to be home again...

My daughter is now preparing to go to Tampere in Finland ( I told her what great people you Finns are!!!) for her Erasmus project while my son is travelling to the UK soon to watch his favorite team Manchester United play Milan...

Well today i returned back to work where i found my beloved patients waiting for me..My nurses all welcomed me back and I started studing for my BSc again..
I hope next week I will start thinking about my digital story...

I hope I will Blog again soon...

Day 7
Teamwork
Today I was really impressed with teamwork. We the mentors worked as a team and we were great. Each member wanted to contribute to his utmost and we did. I think that it was a balanced discussion where the tool kit for Erasmus mentors was built. Everybody inputted good relevant information which I hope will be read by prospective Erasmus mentors. Some mentors are good in IT, some are good in photography....some are good in editing clips...everybody helped and did his part. This part of the programme made me realize that when mature people really want to work together and get a thing done there are no culture and no language barriers. I also hope that it will be a tool that other people can build on. It is only the beginning.....
After a long day, the Maltese, Italians and Finns went to have a pub meal together which was delicious. We continued discussing our work in a more relaxed manner...

Snowing, Clicking and Assessing!!

Day – 6

At last it snowed.....nothing like the snow in Finland mind you! But I enjoyed seeing the sheer look of joy on Josanne face, although she has seen snow before, she has never actually see it fall so she really enjoyed it!! I did not like the cold at all brrrr!!!!
The students really clicked together!!!! Great they seemed to have known each other for a very long time now! Is it because of Facebook? Is it because they are living in rooms next to each other and sharing loads of time together? Or is it because they are all nursing students rocking in the same boat, sharing their diverse problems but trying their best to solve them. Now they are not in country groups any more they are all together in this thing. They are eager that the student conference will be a success..
With regards to us mentors we clicked on splendidly! The idea that now we were joined in one group made the whole thing more interesting as the items being contributed were not duplicated and the preparation for the final tool was set. The thing that we are from different countries with different cultures, but sharing the same perspectives is really brilliant. Various difficulties that the mentors face when mentoring an Erasmus students were discussed. I think that the tool when ready and if read by prospective Erasmus mentors will answer important queries that the mentors may have.
Back to the snow....I was at Piccadilly Circus in the evening and it was snowing again...Out came Josanne’s camera and clikk clikk clikk we have nice pictures of the snow in this famous London Square!!!

Day Five- 5th February 2010

1.30am
When it comes to students expressing themselves why it is nearly always the Maltese or the English that speak? Is it because of the language? Maybe if it is so, is the language a barrier, a part of the fear and anxiety that the students have when they are allocated to a new placement?
The students all had nearly the same concern with regards to their placements and assessments. The different methods of assessments used by participants were discussed and students who are assessed by a pass/fail system said that it is not fair that they are assessed this way. On the other hand the students who had a grading system commented that mentors may have different opinions about the student and they may do not grade the student properly.
As a mentor I must assure that the students in my care be assed properly and be given all the care they need to be made to feel at ease in the placement so that together the student and the mentor will provide excellent practise. I must keep on going assessing myself and updating myself in my speciality as this reflects in my mentoring. Various assessment tools were discussed with the preparation of a final mentor’s tool.
On a note of socializing I thank British Alexis as she is really taking care of us. She showed us around Brent Cross shopping centre were we spent a couple of hours shopping and really enjoyed it. In the evening went to have dinner in Covent Garden. I have been there before a long time ago and was amazed by the continental look it now has...the pedestrian area.. the wine bars and cafés. Finished the evening in an Italian Restaurant...Good food, good fun....good company!

Learning Theories.. Day Four
2.00am
I am a night person...I always do my studying during the night when I am quiet and in a reflective mode. Today it was a hectic day were we analyzed several learning theories and the participants had to recognise a learning theory from a given statement. We all managed to do the matching. We noticed that in our work in the caring profession more than one theory can be applied in fact a theory may overlap one another.
As a mentor one needs to be prepared for the student Erasmus or local that will be allocated to your ward. Certain information must be given to the mentors by the educators so that they would know what to except.... the student has to set up a set of objectives she/he wishes to achieve in the placement. Here there is also diversity. In some countries the set of objectives is laid out while in others it is more flexible. I believe it is beneficial to be a little flexible so that the objectives of the contract can be achieved. At the end of the day the competency will be checked.
In the evening we went to Avenue Q . Maltese, Finns and Italians came to the show we were one big jolly group!!...Good show!! One cannot visit London and not see such a show!!! We really laughed and enjoyed ourselves...Our friendship is continuing to go grow...WOW!!!

A day in the museums

A day in the museums that ended in a typical London pub after a traditional meal of fish and chips!
A museum....The Hunterian Museum is a monument to a man who dedicated his life to science, who wanted to learn more by experimenting in a time when there were no easy facilities for dissecting and preserving organs. If it were not for men like John Hunter we would not be that knowledgeable today. When I think of what we are trying to achieve in these two weeks people like John Hunter inspire me... nothing is impossible.
At the Science Museum in the 4th and 5th floors one can see the evolution of medicine as well as nursing. We have walked a long way but we still have a long way to go...So many people helped. A caption in the Science Museum with regards to admission of patients in St Bart’s in attracted my attention

This was a document of the 19th century that was given to patients on admission to St Bart. Imagine the patient already sick, poor and in pain when confronted with this document..They would be terrified!!
I think that today our patients are lucky they have their rights in our hospitals and we are there to protect their rights.
The socializing part, the fish and chips was great. The Italians and Maltese integrated well together and the singing of some signature tunes of programmes on Italian TV watched by both groups when they were children brought me happy memories...such a small world! In the pub later the Finns, Italians and Maltese all enjoyed themselves drinking the night away...To think that we did not know each other 4 days ago.....

After first day...

2nd February 2010
My First reflection
After the previous day of ice-breaking I felt more at ease with Long Luca and Darling Daniela. The matching adjective to the names made them more easy to remember and sometimes the adjective really described the person such as Manic Michelle and Handsome Harri and of course Nutty Ninette. LOL..The ice breaking games made me realise more the importance of teamwork and communication between us all.
Back to today. When Caroline started explaining about the whole thing that was required to be done by us at first it was all in Greek as I did not really understand what it was all about, what we really had to do. As the digital presentations started rolling, apart from the introduction of the participants and their workplaces, their culture and the beauty of the countries we all come from I started to think why did we have to make this digital video in the first place? We could easily have introduced ourselves in the first meeting. The preparation for this video helped us to develop a relationship between the participants of each country, some of which met for the very first time for this programme. We learned how to listen to each other’s ideas and contribute to this piece of work.


After listening to the afternoon presentations things began to focus more. Every country is doing the best that it can but every system has got its flaws. There were things in common between countries, things that are done better in one country than other. Countries that use different approaches to learning like the Italian example. There was though one common aim. Everybody wants to produce excellent nurses from each respective county. People started communicating more openly at the end of the presentation and now that I have a clearer idea of what this thing is all about I believe that yes we must help each other in creating appropriate tools for mentors as well as for student as after I heard the speakers of today, students, educators and mentors I realized that there is an excellent skill mix that we must tap. The socializing that started with the little festa in The Barn and ended in a Pub at Archway where the discussions continued on a more social level, we were also joined by Bernard and Rodienne, made me aware that all the students had common problems were discussing them openly and enjoying themselves.