Day 5 here in Argentina has been my favorite so far in terms of learning more about nursing and the overall healthcare systems. Our day started off early with a trip to a public hospital called Hospital de Agudos Paroissien. We had a chance to tour the hospital which was really different from the other two we have seen so far. This tour gave me a better insight into how equity is implemented within the hospitals. One example of this is how when you arrive to a hospital in an emergency, or for any reason at all, they will treat you no matter what kind of insurance you have and then worry about the cost later. That’s much different than here in the U.S. where if you were brought to a hospital where your insurance is not accepted, as soon as you are stable you are sent to a different hospital. Also, if you do not have insurance at all, you would have the responsibility of paying an obscure amount of money out of pocket. In the U.S. all hospitals care about is money and if you can pay. But, here in Argentina they treat Avery person the same and will treat them no matter what.

The next part of trip was to a public university called Universidad de la Matanza. While at this university we had a chance to see parts of their nursing department and also speak with current students and professors about the school. Their school has about 60,000 students! And the university was an old Chrysler building so all of the classrooms are in one building. While touring the school I learned some more things that relate to equity in the education system. What makes Argentina so unique and different from the U.S. is that while having free healthcare, they also have free education. So, all of the students that attend the university go for free. I think this demonstrates equity because no matter anybody’s economic background, they can receive a higher education. I think that in the U.S. many more people would attend college if they didn’t have to stress about the absurd cost.

Today was a great day and I can’t wait for tomorrow!