Deborah Briggs has published:

Deborah Briggs

Briggs D (2014) Metformin associated lactic acidosis Emergency Nurse 22:5, 20-25

Deborah and Julie's Oman blog - final entry

We arrived home safely, after little sleep the night preceding our departure and a 22 hour journey we were both pretty tired when we finally arrived home. We've learnt a great deal about the hospital and the nursing staff in Oman.

Deborah in action

There's a long term plan to increase the Omani workforce and decrease reliance on overseas staff, a process  referred to as "Omanisation" This means over the coming years increasing numbers of  post registration nurses will be travelling overseas for educational programmes. The Nursing Directorate don't seem to have any particular alliance to a specific country or institution and send their staff all over the world for "training" (shorter courses) and "scholarship" (MSc, BSc, PhD). This is potentially a great opportunity for the Faculty. The Nursing Directorate are also keen to receive visitors.

Most of the audience are
still awake

The acting head nurse (Daniel) explained they'd recently organised a visit from a neonatal specialist nurse from Nottingham. She stayed for a month and during this time she worked with the clinical staff on practice issues and organised formal teaching about cinical leadership and management. The nursing team are keen to increase these sorts of visits.  When we get back and marking is finished we'll organise some sort of presentation about our Oman adventure. We'll just sign off with a couple of pictures of the workshop.

The pictures were taken by one of  the ICU staff members and not us  which is why they are quite good quality for a change! Also attached are a couple of pictures of the grand mosque and another newly built mosque (white building) they are quite beautifull. Unfortunately we didn't get to see inside the buildings as they were only open to visitors during our working hours. 

Deborah and Julie

Deborah and Julie's Oman bog - NOT a typo!

Managed a couple of "cat naps" on Thursday before leaving at 1.30am  Friday morning for the trip home. Unfortunately the plane from Muscat into Dubai was very late and we missed our connecting flight to Manchester. 7 hour delay. We hope the next flight to Manchester will be on time and trouble free. Final picture is of Julie's first sight of an Omani toilet. It was Wednesday before i told her she ought to try alternative cubicles until she found a western style loo which are in plentiful supply.
Regards
Deborah and  Julie 

Deborah and Julie's Oman blog - entry 5

Last day today we were asked to give some semi formal feedback about our visit and "findings". This is to be followed up with a more formal report when we return home. Here is a picture of us both with most of the nursing  directorate  team.

The room was quite dark apologies  for the quality. We've tried to get some sleep this afternoon as the taxi is booked for 1.30am to begin the gruelling journey back home. Bedrah (one of the ICU nurses) gave me some pictures he took during yesterdays workshop they are quite funny as I'm gesticulating like mad. Unfortunately these are on another device and I've only been able to get WIFI on my phone so I couldn't send them through, or perhaps I'll just keep them to myself! One of the students coming to us later on this month couldn't make our presentation earlier on in the week. We were able to speak to him today. Julie spent most time with him discussing practice issues. Although we've both enjoyed our visit we are pretty tired and  looking forward to coming home.

Deborah and Julie 

Deborah and Julie's Oman blog - entry 4

Wednesday's weather report 46 centigrade

Beach babe - but which one?

Deborah's workshop today so all day teaching. Students registered at 07.15 and we began at 7.30. Perhaps we ought to suggest this for our students! Very mixed group some from critical care and others not, also some medics. The day was "accredited" which means it attracts points and all the nurses have to attend so many accredited courses each year. Some are compulsory such as fire but others like the one today are optional. The day went well although with such a mixed group it was difficult to pitch the level,  some of those from ICU might have found it a little easy. 

Exciting news is that after two abortive attempts we managed to find the beach today. Photographic evidence is attached. Embarrassingly it was just a 5 minute walk from the hotel.

Deborah and Julie 

Deborah and Julie's Oman blog - entry 4

Tuesday 

Good day in practice today in busy units. Julie worked with Niamah  (Hull Alumni), Mark Gretton and Jo Hatfield I'm sure will recognise her. Deborah is pictured with some of the ICU team.

 Deborah and Julie 

Deborah and Julie's Oman blog - entry 3

Monday -  weather still hot 42 degrees today.

Various visits today to various important people (directors), all very pleasant, all with business cards, we both felt a bit lacking in this department as we didn't have any to give in return.

Chance to see the room I'll be teaching in on Wednesday. Our presentation to potential students went well, a very good idea to have one person from the faculty and one from practice. Lots of questions asked. I hope we managed to do a good job and make both the University and Hull sound appealing. Yesterday evening we were taken to see a few of the sites.

The harbour

In the picture of the harbour, the very large boat is the Sultan's yacht, the other picture is of the marina which is a little further up the coast. I countered these views with a picture of Hull marina in my presentation - not quite sure what the potential students made of this. I showed a couple of pictures of Hull city football team and several of the chaps at the presentation recognised one of the players and knew a bit about the team. One of the directors even told us Sunday's score!  A day in practice tomorrow.

The marina

Big news is we've discovered BBC world news on the TV and very importantly they have hourly weather forecasts for this part of the world, you never know when  you might need a thick woollen jumper in Oman. Even though it's delivered in typical BBC style the forecast is highly amusing and very reminiscent of Carolline Aherne's weather girl in The Fast Show: 'Scorchio!'

Deborah and Julie

Deborah and Julie's Oman blog - entry 2

Julie and Huda

We spent the day at the Sultan Qaboos hospital today. The day began with numerous talks about the nursing directorate. Many of the problems are similar to those in the UK. Increasing demands and not enough in-patient beds. Met up with Huda who arranged our visit. Huda has done various programmes of study in the UK. We toured the hospital and everyone was very friendly and welcoming, we both got the impression they were very pleased to see two nursing visitors from the UK.

 We are due to give a formal presentation tomorrow which is basically saying how wonderful Hull, its hospitals and the faculty is. During our tour Huda kept reminding the ward managers about it, so goodness knows how many folks will turn up! Lots of overseas trained nurses on the wards and the nursing directorate has just a  few Omani members. The opportunity to study in the UK is only open to Omani nurses. During our tour we encountered many Omani nurses who had already been to the UK or other countries to study US, Australia and Wales.

It's not all work
Julie in the souk (market)

Big issue here with haematology problems and women turning up unannounced to give birth. I think they said eight deliveries in the ED within the last few weeks. Apparently mothers will travel from miles around to give birth as the hospital is seen as a centre of excellence. If a mother is in the early stages of labour they will turn her away and ask her to go to her booked hospital. Some though leave it too late or sit in the car park until they are fully dilated at which point they obviously can't turn them away! 

Deborah and Julie

Deborah Julie's Oman blog - entry 1

Deborah Briggs and Julie Dimaline arrive in Oman:

Left for our trip to Oman early Friday morning, it took us well over twenty four hours to get here  due to a flight delay. Arrived 5 am ish Saturday morning desperate for some sleep,  although there was  a room booked  check in wasn't until 2pm. Barclaycard to the rescue though and we did manage to get some sleep. Today, Saturday is a free day to recover from the journey. We decided to go for a walk to the beach, got some strange looks from the locals, no other pedestrians out and about due to the heat. Walk soon abandoned. Tried out the pool at the hotel - managed half an hour!

Early start tomorrow we are being picked up by our driver at 7.30 for our first visit to the Sultan Quaboos Hospital. Not sure what to expect, other than the sun will obviously be shining and it will be too hot to walk anywhere!

Deborah and Julie