back home

Hi everyone!

I'm finally back home in Austria now. Anne, Sabine, Johanna and I arrived 5 minutes ahead of the scheduled time at 9.25pm in Salzburg. Marlene and Carina, I hope you got home safely too.
What did Anne and I do on our last day? We got up early, went to Camden Market and had lunch with my former host mum. At 3pm we took the bus to Stansted airport.

Everything went well, just as we have planned it. We are at home. We don't need to set an alarm for tomorrow. What a wonderful world!!

Yours,
Astrid

Nearly the end

Today we had our final presentation of our project work we did on St John Ambulance, what means that is was the last day in Southampton!
We are all very tired and we have to catch up the sleep we miss! Tomorrow early in the morning we go to London by bus. The next few days we won't have any access to the internet, but we have taken a few pictures from our speech today and as soon as possible we publish them ;)

Have a nice weekend and we meet next week, when posting a final "Thank You!" for you! ;)

Take care!

Marlene

"say of the day"

"This goes me on the nerves" =)

Johanna's opinion about the Telering commercial.

Austrian afternoon

Hello!

During our stay in Southampton we have to write a report and do a presentation in groups of four or five. Maggy, Stefanie, Daria and Elisabeth have decided to choose "St John Ambulance" as their topic with the difference that their main focus was aimed at arranging an Austrian afternoon for some voluntary workers and elderly people who are looked after by them.
As we are also working on a project about St John Ambulance we decided to take part and help them to prepare coffee and cakes for the guests.






The group held an informative presentation about Austria with its sights and typical meals and drinks. Afterwards everybody took part in an Austrian quiz where there was the possibilty to win one "Mozartkugel" for each right answer. Then we sang the "Austrian Yodelsong" altogether, which was great fun.




The group did a great job and it was a successful and funny afternoon. Afterwards all attenders were invited by St John Ambulance to a delicious buffet.

Good night.
Yours,
Anne

Visit Western Community Hospital

Good evening everybody!

This was a very interesting, exciting and diversified day! In the morning we went to the Western Community Hospital by bus where we met Sheila Brook and Ellen McNicholas who is the Unscheduled Care Service Manager of the Hospital.

First of all Mrs. Brook gave us a brief insight in the 3 major working parts which the Southampton City Primary Care Trust (SCPCT) concentrates on.

1) Provider Services
Adult and Elderly Care
Child and Familiy Services
Primary Care
Community Hospitals
First Response
Public Health promotion


2) Commissioned Services
From Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust(SUHT) - acute, secondary and tertiary services
From Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Trust (HPT) - mental health services
From other organisations and independendent sector

3) Corporate Services
Finance, Business Planning, IT, Quality,...

We also discussed general issues like obesity and teenage pregnancy in whole Britain and what the government attempts to get those problems under control. For example within education at schools.



After a short break Ellen McNicholas gave a very interesting and informative speach to our group. The main points she presented to us were:

1)NHS Walk-in Centres

NHS Walk-in Centres are the classic example for what the NHS does to change the situation in the country.
The NHS Walk-in Centres offer healthcare advice, information and treatment from specially-trained nurses 365 days a year, with no appointment necessary. They can offer:

- treatment for minor injuries and illnesses
- minor infections and rashes
- superficial cuts and bruises
- strains and sprains
- stomach upsets
- coughs, colds and flu-like symptoms
- ... and much more.

A NHS Walk-in Centre has about 3,500 clients a month. In Southampton there are 3 of them: The Southampton (Central) NHS Walk-in Centre, the Shirley Walk-in Centre and the Bitterne Walk-in Centre.

In the NHS Walk-in Centres there are no docotors - there are 3 specially trained nurses, one health care supporter and one receptionist.

2)Out of Hours Service

With this service the NHS is able to cover 780,000 people with health service outside their General Practicener's surgery opening times. When somebody is calling this service he will be asked about his\her problem. After answering some questions a decision will be taken: Maybe no health service is necessary at the time and the patient can wait until his\her Gerneral Practicioner is available or the patient will come to a meeting-point to see the doctor or if it's essential the GP comes at the patient's home.
All in all 26 % of the phone calls end up with an home visit of the doctor, which is a really high rate.

3)Rapid Response Team

This is a team existing of 44 people who provide a very important service.

"A swift response to the prevention and management of health and social care crises by providing short-term, intensive, frequent support treatment and care in collaboration with existing services." (Southampton City PCT, 2007)

For example: They try to keep people at home so they don't have to go to hospital or that they can go home from hospital as soon as possible. Sometimes there is only the support from the family missing and then the Rapid Response Team fill in for so.

They are not just providing short-term solutions for the people but also long-term solutions.

The Rapid Response Team is working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. It is composed of nurses, social workers, physiotherapists and doctors.

After that very interesting insight in those topics we had a tour through Western Community Hospital.

us5 @ work

Hello!

The status quo: It is half past midnight and we are indeed a little bit tired after having worked for our project since 4.00 pm.

Although it was a lot of hard work but we had great fun.

We think we deserve to go to bed now.
Good night!
us5

say-of-the-day

"Now she is 17. In one year she is maybe 18?!"
Marlene S. in a heated discussion about a teenager mother.