Reflections on My Practising time by Hanna O

My name is Hanna and I started from a place called Ligustern at Furulund. To be completely honest it wasn’t something I had looked forward to. I’ve never had/e thoughts of working within elderly welfare.

I think practising periods is good for me and everybody else. You really go out into the real “adult” life.

It wasn’t like I had imagined at all. I was not practicing at one place, as the majority of my class is, but in different ones. I practiced in something called homecare. It means that we’re going home to both young and older people with different kinds of problems. In homecare assistants, nurse, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, rehabilitation work together. Then there is a boss of course.

The first time I was about to meet a patient I was shocked. I saw a young patient in front of me. But then my instructor explained to me that home-care takes care of younger patients also, if a doctor or someone else thinks they need help from home-care service.

I think it’s a good idea with practising time during your education, for me and everybody else. I learnt more than I usually do at school. That’s the meaning of practicing, that you learn the basics in school and then learn the advanced “real thing” in practice. You really go out into the real “adult” life. I also think that now when I've done my practice out there I can feel really proud of those five weeks.

What I especially can recall is a certain patient. He had a colostomy, which means that he had a bag on the belly. If one has it, it means that the intestines have been hurt or that you had a disease there, and usually it is cancer when you’re older. What I am proud of is that when my instructor would change this colostomy, I watched while she did it. And now you’re surely thinking that this sounds strange. So why am I so proud of this? Well for sure it was the first time I saw an organ that generally should be inside of the body.

I've learned a lot in home care during these five weeks. I’m actually very happy that I have worked in the care of the elderly care. I got good contact with my patients who I've meet these five weeks.

So it turned from happy to sad.

I can’t wait to the next practicing period!