Semester Abroad, Global Correspondents Haha, what’d you just say?

As I typed my progress notes recapping last night’s shift I entered “Condom catheter inserted at 2100 for overnight urinary incontinence.” My nurse looked over and laughed, asking “What is a condom catheter?” I explained that I was referring to the male external urinary catheter we had just inserted. She then replied, “Ohhh, we call that a Uridome” and proceeded to laugh. To which I nervously laughed along, recognizing how funny I must’ve sounded, that was just what we called it in the U.S.  

When I chose to undergo clinical placements for a semester abroad, I knew there would be many differences between the American and Australian healthcare systems. I feared that due to my lack of knowledge about these differences, I would come off as dumb or inexperienced.   

As I began my clinical placements at a Brain Injury Rehabilitation Unit, my fears did indeed come true. Many basic and introductory concepts had different names and procedures were unfamiliar to me. For example, common medications such as Tylenol and Advil are called Panadol and Nurofen here. Or, how vital signs, termed “obs” here, are charted and evaluated on a deterioration detection system, called the Q-ADDs. In addition, IV tubing is prepared differently than how I’ve repetitively been taught for the past 3 years. Rather than beating myself up every single time this happened (because it happened more often than you’d think), I asked dumb questions, learned, and then laughed it off with my nurses and peers. 

As time went on, these interactions happened less frequently as I adapted and became more confident in my practice. Although I’ve encountered some embarrassing moments, some lessons must be learned through trial and error. I expect, that as a new grad nurse, I will again have to undergo another series of relearning and growing to eventually feel more confident and competent in my practice. Because I have only trained in Penn hospitals, things like equipment, policies, and procedures are bound to vary wherever I end up.   

So far, in my time here, I learned to appreciate these differences that took me out of my U.S. bubble. As one of the leading countries in healthcare equity and outcomes, there’s much to be learned from Australia’s universal healthcare system. Navigating a completely new system, I started questioning things that I had previously never thought twice about. I imagine that throughout my semester abroad and career, I will experience many more challenges, opportunities and paradigm shifts that’ll shape me into a better nurse and person. I look forward to this journey of life-long learning, one condom cath- I mean Uridome at a time.