Day One
 Our brief is to focus on developing the capacity of the poorly-trained home based care team by
 Building professionalism through example,
 In-house training –eg lifting, identifying strokes etc,
 Going out into the community and observing and supporting the carers,
 Building confidence in the carers.
At the end of day one we spent a long time swapping stories of our day.  I think we all felt somewhat dissatisfied with our roles and wondered how we would manage to do this for a month.  The needs were so great and we were so inadequate and very much fish out of water.  For the three of us at Missionvale it had certainly been a very emotional day and tears of one sort or another had never been far from the surfac
Despite that I slept easy knowing that this was where I had wanted to be since before I went to medical school.

Day  14
Today  I asked my group’s leader to give the report.  She agreed but when it actually came to it she deferred to one of the others whose report was so short I hardly recognised it as ours.  Nothing of any importance was mentioned.

Day 24
I took my last group of carers out this morning and it was a glorious day, just right for walking about in the sunshine.    
This afternoon’s debriefing session was the best yet.  Each carer had a least one client to report on, they all listened attentively and the reports were logical and audible.  We told them that tomorrow they would have their protocols and that there would be a prize for the best report and that person’s group leader.
The post-visit teaching session went well and as it was the last one I wanted to make laminated copies of the protocol for the carers to use on their visits and for their reports.  I was delighted to be able to print it and copy it at MV from my memory stick but unfortunately the laminator broke with the first copy so I had to walk the 3k to the shops after work.It was a very hot and sticky walk back from the shops but the sea looked glorious and I felt quite elated that I had completed all the teaching and had something concrete to give them all on my last day tomorrow.