I don’t think my internship could go any better than it already is right now. This week I felt so much more comfortable in my role as an exchange student. Knowing the ward, staff and patients better feels really good, I can take more initiatives because I roughly know what the procedures would be. My schedule this week also allowed me to follow patients’ development better. Talking to patients that are not fluent in English doesn’t feel as awkward/scary as in the beginning partly because the little Swedish vocabular I have has grown a little. I have been fortunate to observe and sometimes help with impressing interventions. For example: observing controlled defibrillations. Even thought I had already seen one the week before, I still got fascinated observing another one and seeing real life examples of the theories I had seen during my lectures. This and more interventions like the placement of an arterial catheter and seeing an ultrasound of the hart led me to already missing my placement even thought I have one more week left.
Outside the hospital’s walls I also got to do some fun activities. Last week one of my flatmates discovered a BBQ grill had been placed in our court yard. Again, kudos to the university for providing these kind of extra’s. This Thursday it was extraordinarily warm so my flatmates and I held a BBQ. Almost all Swedish stores have loads of meat alternatives for BBQ’s I could choose from. When all the preparations for the BBQ were finally ready I spent the rest of the evening enjoying vegan hotdogs with good company.
During the weekend I was yet again surprised by a warm Swedish day that I couldn’t pass sitting inside and I went out for some sightseeing. I visited one of Gothenburg’s islands in the archipelago called Vrängo. The stunning scenery definitely made up for the fact that it was quite a bit colder on the island than on the mainland. I would definitely recommend visiting at least one island when in Gothenburg.