While I work in a emergency room, I have never been a patient in a emergency room but, sure enough, a couple weeks into my time here in England, I had to make a visit to the emergency room, or as they call it here, A and E, which stands for accident and emergency.
I was walking to get on my bike for a indoor cycling class when I slipped on water and fell to the ground. I am not even sure the logistics of how I fell or what I got caught on, because when I stood up I felt fine. However, everyone was screaming there was blood on the ground and when I looked down there was actually quite a lot of blood. Unsure where it came from, I began looking everywhere when I saw my right pinky finger and became faint. My whole nail was ripped off and hanging on by a thread. I think I was in shock because it didn’t start hurting till the class instructor and sports trainer started cleaning and wrapping it. Without getting into too much gorey detail, let’s just say it wasn’t pretty and there was someone screaming – me. Once the trainer wrapped it up, he told me to go to the A and E. So, I called up one of the other girls who came here with me from Linfield and we walked there. Luckily, the hospital is right next to campus.
When I got there it wasn’t too busy, at least not what I am use to seeing at my job in the American ER, but it was a whole lot more complicated to find where the ER was. It felt like I walked the whole hospital to fine it. I went up to the counter to check in and she asked for my surname (last name), I told her I am not from England but she said I should be in the system. Apparently, everyone in England when you first arrive, or born, is registered with the National Health Service (NHS). I didn’t know this. So, therefore, I was not in the system and it took some 5 registers to figure out how to check me in without being registered with NHS. Let just say I learned my lesson and went to register with NHS after. Anyways, I got checked in and waited about 45 minutes. The nurse practitioner checked out my finger and, after realizing I need it to be numb because I was screaming every time she touched it, put my nail back into the nail bed and wrapped it up. I went home all better, at least I thought.
The next day I was curious what it looked like, I mean I am a nursing student after all, so I unwrapped it….. and it was very very purple. I didn’t think that was normal so I asked a friend who is a EMT and they suggested going back. So, I did and sure enough the X ray showed it was broken.
The crazy part of this whole experience is that I went to the emergency room twice and never once was asked for insurance, money or anything. WHATTTTTT? That is something you don’t experience in America for sure.
Moral of the story, watch where you walking because having a broken finger hurts and showering with a finger cast isn’t fun.
Cierra