I was on another late shift today so didn't start until 2.30pm until 10pm. I quite like this shift as I'm generally an early riser so it gives me all morning to do what I please. I started my day off with a 5 mile walk - I'm really racking up these miles now. I love the lakes here and everyone is super active so it's very encouraging. I also don't have a car and I'm not a massive fan of buses so I walk everywhere. I had some breakfast, and did a bit of work with the rest of my morning before heading off the the maternity ward. I stopped in the canteen on route and bought my daily mixed salad. When I got to the till, my card was declined. I checked my online balance and was doing fine, but it kept saying declined. The lady informed me it was because I had a mastercard as a travel card but I had been using this card everyday previously in the canteen. I went to put the salad back but the lady said I could have it and to bring the money tomorrow. I was shocked! She didn't know me from Adam and I didn't have my uniform on so I could have just been visiting. I have since been told this is typical of the Norwegian culture. They are very trusting which was lovely and refreshing. 
I arrived at the birthing ward on the 7th floor. I was introduced to my lovely mentor Trude. We recieved handover which I understood a little bit of as some words are similar in English. As I'm not there to learn about midwifery practice as such, I don't find it helpful following my mentor around as obviously the midwives speak to the women in Norwegian and I can't do anything to help. However, what I do find really useful is the discussions I have with the midwives and docters. I spent the rest of the shift talking with various different midwives about protocols and practices they have as well as cutural differences. They're caesarean section rate is very low at around 11% but they weren't sure how many of those were elective or emergency. They are very pro trying to keep care as low risk as possible in Stavanger and the women are also very keen for vaginal births so there aren't many that request an elective C-Section. 
There were lots of discussions around lots of different maternity related subjects that everyone seemed keen to get involved with. I saw a few patients with my mentor but and we discussed with the doctor the plan of care. The junior and senior registras worked well alongside the midwives which I also feel works really well within our maternity services at UHW. We  also had discussions surrounding supervision in Wales and the midwives were very keen to learn more about my new role. Although they were aware of a few midwives involved with quality and safety at their hospital, they weren't aware of a clinical governance team quite on the same level with have at Cardiff. It seemed they were really interested in this and felt they would welcome supervision in their hospital but informed me it was not a recognised role in Norway. My shift finished at 10pm and I headed back to my hotel room. I had really enjoyed my shift tonight and felt I had taken a lot away from the discussions had. I now had the weekend to write my workbook reflections, catch up with my blog, walk and catch up with friends and family.