Hello Finland!
I study to be a nurse and I wanted to do my intership in other country. So here I am, in Portugal, city called Coimbra. Sebtember and specially October have been so warm; over 30 degrees most of the days. No complaints…
Work place
I work at a university hospital at the infectious department. In the ward, there is lots of different kind of patients; HIV, pneumonia, cancer, drug users etc. I have done so many different things, for example taking blood examples, treated the wounds, diluted antibiotics and I have given intravenous medication to patiens. 
Free time
Coimbra is pretty small city here in Portugal but still there is something to see. The university is very famous and popular. The school was built in 1290. It’s oldest school in Portugal.
Also Santa Clara bridge is beautiful. Rio Mondego- river flows through Coimbra under the Santa Clara bridge. From there you can see all those colorful buildings and beautiful landscape.
I have travelled few times in here Portugal. I have been in Figuera da Foz and Porto. One of my classmates from Finland came here and she is living in Porto. Figuera da Foz in near to the beach. Coimbra is inland so it is nice to visit the seafront sometimes. I am planning to go to Aveiro and Lissabon soon also.
We also booked a trip to Paeva Walkways- event. There we went to this amazing park. Paiva Walkways are located on the left bank of the Paiva River, in Arouca municipality, Aveiro. There is route what is 8 km long and that provide a walk “untouched”, surrounded by unique beauty of landscapes, in an authentic natural sanctuary along the brave waters downhills.
What is different
I think the ward in the hospital itself is pretty similar than in Finland. In our ward, there is 29 beds for patiens. In morning shift works five nurses, three nurse assistant and several doctors. Nurse assistans differs from our practial nurses. Nurse assistants just help nurses if they need help. They are not allowed to do anything by themselves. You don’t need any kind of education to be an assistant; you learn when you work. Here nurses do lots of things. Some wards in Finland, nurses don’t take blood samples anymore. And nurses and doctors works together. Here they doesn’t.
The hierarchy is strongly exposed. Doctors are almost like God and students are lowest ranked. Even though they said that in Finland we are quiet and shy people, still we are friendly and openminded. Here not so many are interested from students or wants to know who we are etc. They don’t speak english, even if they can.
In general, I think here people are nice and friendly and helpful. If you ask something, at least they try to help you (sometimes they just tell anything, just to get rid of you 😀 ). And ofcourse here they are “slow” as in the West European countries. Nurses comes to work like 10mins late every day, and that’s okay. If you ask something important, they answer you “don’t worry about it”.
But still, I like Portugal. Maybe we can learn to be little more flexible and relaxed… 😉
Love,
Jonna
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