We traveled to La Matanza, a province of Buenos Aires, on our fifth day in Argentina. After arriving, we took a tour of Hospital de Agudos Paroissien. It was interesting to observe how this hospital differed from the public hospital we visited yesterday and how they were alike. We had the opportunity to view the NICU and ER facilities. The kindness of everyone we met was one thing that truly stood out to me. Overall, it was a really wonderful experience, and I definitely feel like I now understand more about how equality is fostered within the Argentine healthcare system.

As I previously highlighted in one of my blogs, Healthcare is regarded as a constitutional right in Argentina. Their main priority is for everyone to get treated. This implies that everyone has access to healthcare regardless of wealth. However, there are some tremendous gradients between the private and public sectors. So, in some ways, equity is both promoted and hindered by the healthcare system. It really relies on your point of view and is also significantly influenced by the sector one belongs to.

After the hospital tour, we headed out to Universidad Nacional la Matanza. Similar to public healthcare, the education system in Argentina is free. By increasing access to education, especially for children of low-income families, Argentina is making process in reducing inequity in education. The campus was very different from Pitt and we learned that the overall number of students enrolled were double of what we have. 

Out of all our visits so far, I would say the university was my favorite. Here, we got the opportunity to engage with students who were close to our own age. Specifically, we got to talk with nursing students, visit their simulation labs, and even practice CPR ourselves. We also had some extra time to socialize with the students at the end of the day. For me, it was a very gratifying experience. We each exchanged why we decided to go into nursing and what we hoped for the future of the profession as a whole. I’m very happy I was able to have these discussions.