Day 5 in Argentina! Today we were at the bus by 8am to go the suburbs of Buenos Aires to see a public hospital and university. We arrived at Paroissien Hospital and were greeted by an entire group of staff, excited to see us. We got a tour around the hospital and ran into some very nice cats. We saw the diagnostic laboratories, ICU, pediatrician side, and everything geriatric. It was a massive hospital with 2 above ground floor, and 2 underground floors. They said there are underground ICUs and ERs in case there is a war or national emergency and everyone has to go underground, which I thought was very interesting. After a very nice hospital tour we got back onto the bus to go to the Universidad Nacional de la Matanza. This is one of the biggest public universities on the outskirts of Buenos Aires and we were very warmly welcomed. We walked around the campus and saw all the classrooms, artwork, rec area, and thousands of students. We also got to see a nursing student simulation room with the mannequins like we have at Pitt. It was interesting to learn about nursing students’ degree progression and classes, and how they differ from ours. After a long tour of the university and getting lots of stares, we had lunch. And this wasn’t a typical university lunch. Since the students at these public universities don’t live on campus, they have a traditional lunch room, like I did in grade school. It was quite nastolgic but I also don’t think I’ve ever had that many eyes on me at once. We then had a lengthy bus ride back to the hotel and I crashed for the night and ordered take-in like the locals. And thanks to PerdidosYa I had some very tasty Inside Veggie Revolution.

Today’s topic is drumroll…………..equity related to healthcare and the education system. I personally believe that both the healthcare and education system in Argentina promote equality but overall impede equity. They promote equality because it is only equal and fair that if there are private hospitals and universities, that there should be public hospitals and universities as well. However, this impedes equity in the long run. This is because the public equivalents are significantly lower in quality, funding, and ranking. You can tell the differences almost immediately by the interiors, exteriors, visiting population of people, and what you hear about them. I think that initially it was probably a good idea to create all these private institutions after seeing how the public ones could be improved upon, but that only created a socioeconomic gap between the two. After all these years it does seem very difficult to fix these sort of systemic issues, but everyone at the public hospitals and universities seemed to be extremely happy where they were, so why fix it if it’s not broke.