Isle of Skye

This weekend, we traveled to the Isle of Skye! The weather in Scotland has been pretty cold (50-55 degrees), even for Scotland, and on and off misty rain. However, despite all of that, this weekend was one of my favorite trips ever! I had heard that the Isle of Skye was difficult to navigate with public transport, so we decided to do a bus tour.

On Day 1, we started off at the Dunkeld Cathedral, north of Edinburgh. Next, we drove into the highlands toward Inverness. It didn’t take us more than an hour outside of Edinburgh for the scenery to become completely gorgeous. We stopped for a whisky tasting and then kept driving toward Inverness which sits next to Loch Ness (obviously famous of for Nessie, the fabled monster that lives beneath its murky water). Despite the fact that it was 50 degrees outside, James decided to jump in!

As we drove to the Isle of Skye, the mountains became more and more incredible. I am quite sure that none of the photos we take of the mountains will do any of them justice, but I hope they at least convince you that you need to come to Scotland to see them yourself! We made two quick stops at the Urquhart Castle and Eilean Donan Castle.

Finally at the Isle of Skye, it was breathtaking. It’s also called the Isle of Clouds in Gaelic, so it wasn’t surprising that most of the mountains were covered in mist and fog. However, there was immense wide open spaces were so beautiful despite the rain and fog. We visited waterfalls, the Fairy Glen, Kilt Rock, and many other places.  To top it off, our hostel which was on the island looked out over the water with a spectacular view of a 12th century ruined castle with mountains in the distance.

 
On Day 3, we left Skye behind and wound back through the highlands, stopping at Glen Coe. This gorgeous valley is surrounded by 3 mountains known as the 3 sisters. We also stopped at the Doune Castle (where Outlander and Monty Python were filmed) and the William Wallace Monument. One of the best parts of this entire trip was that our guide told us traditional Scottish stories that were brought to life by the highlands so I also learned quite a bit about Scottish Culture/History/Tradition through the trip.  It was an exhausting weekend, but really unforgettable!

Pharmacy Rotation - Week 1

Time is flying by and I can’t believe a week has past! So I thought I’d give you an update on my rotation.

Last week I started my rotation at the National Health Service in Edinburgh. Most of my time has been spent in meetings with different individuals who have helped me to understand various aspects of a nationalized health care system, including data collection, privacy management, public health services, and prescribing, which vary considerably from the US System. One amazing statistic is that NHS has the ability to analyze the prescribing of around 98% of prescription medications in this country due to newer technology that tract prescriptions. Therefore, this offers a lot of unique opportunities for interventions and research that can not be done in the US where that kind of data covering the whole population doesn’t exist.  As this rotation is also serving as my practicum for my Masters in Public Health, it has been very interesting to compare the different public health approaches in this country.So far, I have been very impressed by what I am learning about Scottish Health Care because, since they have an amazing amount of data concerning their own populations, they can make very specific targeted interventions to improve health care delivery. Pharmacists also have many more responsibilities within the health care system. For example, pharmacists can prescribe in the UK, so they have the ability to make a lot of interventions in chronic disease management. The NHS also has a pretty inspiring vision for advancing pharmacy in Scotland. If you are interested to learn more, this Prescription For Excellence report details the plan for pharmacists in the UK:

I’ve also been learning a little about my project which will look at antimicrobial stewardship which will look at the use of antibiotics which are more prone to cause a hospital-associated infection known as Clostridium Difficile. Today,  I had the opportunity to travel to Glasgow (Scotland’s largest city) and attend a meeting of the Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group and learn about the different approaches that National Health Service is taking to reduce inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics. It was extremely interesting to hear reports using their national data about the status of prescribing and the new projects in development to further improve it.

It’s been a great learning experience so far and I can’t wait to delve further into my research project this week!

First Week in Edinburgh

Edinburgh is a city of dual natures. It has aristocrats and highlanders; laborers and intellectuals; criminals and religious reformers. These dichotomies are even apparent in the city’s design. Edinburgh’s Old Town grew on the slope around its namesake battlement for nearly 1,000 years; in the 1600s, desperate for protection within the city walls, its people crammed together, built narrow cobblestone streets, and lived in some of tallest stone dwellings in the world. Then around 1800, Edinburgh’s New Town was designed and built with wide streets and luxurious housing—one of the best planned cities in the world. Today, both Old Town and New Town are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and both towns are Edinburgh. It is not surprising then that Edinburgh-author Robert Lewis Stevenson’s most famous character is the two-faced Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde.

This makes Edinburgh a fascinating place. With Joye at work, I have had an excuse to tour around and see some of Edinburgh’s less popular sites. In museums I have learned about Edinburgh’s history, its famous poets and authors, and even visited the gravestone of Adam Smith, “father of economics” and just one of many academics who defined the Scottish Enlightenment. Together, Joye and I went to a public lecture on evidence-based public policy that was hosted in the basement of a haunted pub.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the last week in Edinburgh:

Update: Welcome to Edinburgh

Hello Everyone,

We've decided to continue our blog to share about our experience in Edinburgh this summer. Joye is just starting a 6 week pharmacy rotation with the National Health Services and James is tagging along, doing research and working on writing and publishing manuscripts while we are here.

Today was our first day! We arrived at 8 am to cloudy, drizzling weather, exhausted and ready for bed. However, we knew we had to stay up to get over jet lag. So after a quick nap, we went out and explored our new city! The sun came out and it really was the perfect weather. We walked past the Edinburgh Castle, saw the cafe where Harry Potter was written, and walked to Hollyrood Park where we hiked up a rock outcropping and had a beautiful view of the city. On our way back, we strolled down the Royal Mile and ended up enjoying a free concert in St. Giles Cathedral.