On international nurse day, I learned so much about the different ways the nurses in Birmingham do their job. I think it is important to understand how other nurses do their job so you can see if there is a better way of doing it. Not only did I learn about how nurses do their job, I also learned about the schooling the go through and the specialities they pick. Today was a special day because I got to talk to many nursing students from Birmingham City University. Actually being able to talk to the students gives the best perspective of their program, their thoughts and experiences with nursing, and their opinion on their thoughts on the University of Pittsburgh nursing program. I also got to talk to one of the nursing teachers, she was a very lovely lady. She talked about what the students go through in the program and was very knowledge about the way Americans do nursing as well. The students explained that even though they are a branch campus they still have tons of students that participate in their program. Even though I got to talk to the nurses about so much, something I took away from this is that everyone has their own way of doing nursing school, but at the end of the day we all take away the same things to use in our careers.

A key component of today was being able to experience the BCU skills lab. There was 4 components to the skills labs today. Hand washing, anatomy trivia, CPR review/practice and an interactive video. The first section I did was the hand washing portion, the professor added germ lotion to our hands and we had to wash our hands to the best of our ability to get the germs off. The second section I did was the anatomy trivia, I did it in 1 min and 18 sec, I almost made it to first place! The CPR skill was the most interesting for me because I learned something new that they do not teach us in america. I was taught to walk up to the patient from the front to avoid the patient from trying to move their head incase there was a neck injury. The final part of the skills lab is also something that I have never experienced before. It was an interactive video for you to react to as if you are the nurse in charge. I thought this was very helpful because it shows that you never know what is going to happen, what is going to be said and what you are going to do next. The stimulation lab taught me that you have to be quick on your feet.

The lecture today consisted of learning about the public health system of England and Birmingham. This lecture was done by James Gillies and Aldo Mussi. I learned that the Public Health consists of preventing disease and promoting health, efforts to take action and prevent different circumstances from happening, and how society plays a part in public health collectively and individually. This lecture was very important to me because I never knew what Public Health consisted of. From what I learned in public health is not often talked about as a whole system, more as little parts we just consider public health.

Not only did I get to participate in lecture, I got to watch many conferences. One conference that stood out to me the most was the one about sending nurses into a prison to work as a student nurse. I have never heard of this being done before in the states and that is what intrigued me the most. The speaker presented about how she thought it was important for nurses to be in this type of environment because at some point in their career it is possible that someone in a prison setting is going to need care and you are going to be around a bunch of prison guards, gaining experience as a student nurse allows you to be less frightened in the future in these circumstances. This was a huge take away for me because I feel having this type of experience is very important to become a nurse that can be prepared for any situation.