Life can be overwhelming.

Hey everyone,

Life has been absolutely crazy this last month. I've been in the application process for an internship abroad, heard I wasn't in, than was in again, and now am arranging a load of stuff for the internship. I've also been really busy reaching the deadlines on the assignment for my current placement for my nursing course, my diabetes has been a mess, and so on and so on.

Slowly I have been busy crossing things off my to do list and finally I'm at a point where I feel like I'm in control of my life again. The blurry mess has disappeared and made place for an organised mess instead. There are still a lot of things I need to be doing but hey, I will make it through as it's all for a great cause. 

First things first, the rollercoaster that has been the process for my internship abroad. I had applied for an internship abroad in South-Africa, due to the massive amount of applications we would be selected through a group assessment. A few days after the assessment, which went really well, I was told I was not selected. Since high school I had been working toward an internship abroad so as you can imagine my world collapsed. The days that followed nearly lead to dehydration as I couldn't stop crying. The worst thing was that my fellow nursing students, whom I helped with their entire application process, were all selected.. All three were selected and I was the only one who wasn't. So now way I was going to leave it there, nope I called, send a really emotional e-mail and for some miracle (and the fact South-Africa was considered the only diabetes safe country by that organisation) I got in after all. That was the end of crying and my world had turned back to this happy sunny place again. 

By now I'm very busy with arranging my accommodation and getting all the documents for my volunteer visa ready. South-African visa's are not fun to apply for, at all. They ask for at least 20 different documents signed by a lot of different people and wow it's crazy, but hey I'm half way already so I can already see some light at the end of the tunnel. One more pro is that I am going with my one of my best buddies from my nursing course and I've already met so many amazing students from uni that are also going to South-Africa. It's going to be an incredible semester, of that I am sure.  

Then there's my diabetes who decided to join my mood and get very, very low. The dextro energy tablets have taken over my body and I literally can't stop eating. You know as my body acquires sugar to get over those low blood sugars. The even better part (read this very sarcastically) is that most of the low sugars happen during the night, or early in the morning so goodbye sleep. But hey, a few e-mails to the hospital and my sugar levels have been fixed again. So that's all good, yay!

Also the deadlines of my current placement have been met, and they graded me a 9 which is like really really good. I absolutely loved this placement and it was such an amazing ward to work on. Loved the patients, the colleagues, and the work there. So different from the other wards I have been on placement on so far. Might even go back there after graduation. 

So yeah, slowly but surely life is getting back on track which also means more blogposts!! Expect blogposts on all of the above, together with some nice days out I have planned and a few new survival guide and Renée reviews blogposts. There is a lot on it's way!

Lots of love,
ThatDutchGirl96

International nursing.

This year I was lucky enough to get chosen to participate in the ENNE IP. The ENNE IP embodies cooperation between nursing students from 14 countries in Europe (and the UK). It also helps them to learn about and from the differences between nursing in different countries through which the student nurses develop their intercultural competences. And we get to explore the city/ country that hosts the programme.

The ENNE IP took place in Barcelona this year and during the programme I was in group 4, the best group. Our first task was to create the ideal nurse, for which we created a new curriculum that we would love to see used all over Europe. So international important health care people, look at the picture below carefully as it shows you the best nursing currucilum you have ever seen! All teachers were impressed which was an amazing achievement as we made it during the first days we were together with our group so we didn't really know each other that well either. So yeah I am very proud of what we achieved with this task. And the other tasks as well, we weren't the best group for no reason.

Never did I think this week would become the best one in my nursing career so far, and will probably stay the best week in my nursing career until it's over. It was absolutely amazing to get to know nursing students and fellow young adults/ adults from all over Europe. We got to share not only a lot of information on our nursing curriculum and health care system but also on our personal lives. I got the chance to meet some amazing and really interesting new people and make a lot of new friends. Plus I now have a lot of places in Europe I have to visit soon if only for an ENNE reunion. 

I was extremely surprised by the crazy amount of differences in both nursing and a health care systems between the countries. Aren't we all here to care for our patients? To make sure the care we deliver is the best care? This brings me back to the amazing European nursing curriculum our group developed above. A curriculum that shows you all fields of health care, makes sure you have enough practical experience and theoretical knowledge, plus it offers you the opportunity to go work as a bachelor nurse all over Europe without having to re-do the bachelors programme in the other country.

So the ENNE IP was super interesting in a nursing / theoretical way, as another task was creating a care plan for a certain case. It was also super interesting and just amazing in a personal and social way. I got to meet so many new people and learn so much about different countries (every country had to present themselves and their country on the first night). But let's not forget the sight-seeing activities we've done with the water activity as an absolute favourite. A lot of people cancelled this one due to the bad weather but the people that went had an amazing time, including myself. I went paddle boarding, and for a first time I think I did amazing. plus it was the best opportunity to do some more socialising with the other students. 

Then there were the parties. We Dutchies organised one in honour of Kingsday that was celebrated on April 27th, where we had typical Dutch games but also a lot of drinks and laughter. It was amazing. The other truly amazing party was the goodbye party, there was homemade sangria, musical chairs with the teachers, students playing music typical for their country, and a lot of tears and hugs. The atmosphere among students and teachers just shifted 180 degrees that night and it was incredible. Saying goodbye has barely ever been so hard, although it was more of a see you later as I am definitely going to visit most of them and their cities somewhere in the future!

Europe get ready for me! Nurses on tour!

Lots of love,
ThatDutchGirl96