Today was our first day at the Birmingham City University (BCU) campus! We were so excited to meet the staff of the nursing and education programs! They treated us to tea and sweets, gave us a tour of the Seacole building where the nursing labs are located, and had staff presentations from the School of Education.
Several staff from BCU discussed their experience as an educator. First we learnt about the UK school system, and how their school is divided into secondary and primary school, similar ages to middle and elementary. After secondary, students complete GCSE exams to test their proficiency in math, English, and science. If they pass these subjects, they can continue onto college, or high school aged schooling. After these students must take and pass A-level exams if they wish to attend a university. We discussed the UK overall curriculum, or the National Curriculum, which sets the requirements for all schools in the United Kingdom. Government officials will perform a yearly evaluation of schools called the OFSTED to determine if their outcomes are matching National Curriculum goals.
Two of the speakers discussed how school funding in the United Kingdom is based on pupil premium. In this system, students are allotted individual funding based on their parent/guardian’s income. The lower the student’s socioeconomic status, the more funding the student receives. This is the opposite of the United States, where local taxation funds schools, meaning that wealthier areas have more school funding. Many of the ECU educators agreed that this system tends to be beneficial, but sometimes schools will attempt to use individual student’s funding to support the general school. This can be negative because it takes away from student’s most in need of monetary support. They also discussed how students with a lower SES tend to also be of minority ethnicities and often speak English as a second or additional language. This stuck out to me because my group’s research is focused on social determinants affecting mothers and babies in childbirth and early development.
The discussion that stuck out to me most today was not from a lecture, but from our lunch break. A BCU nursing student who will be studying abroad in Pittsburgh this summer showed us around the school. She took us to the campus cafeteria where the food is at reduced cost for students. This is to support students’ ability to eat a healthy lunch while also paying. No offense to Pitt dining, but I would love this benefit on our campus. I was able to buy a sandwich and fruit cup for just 2.5 pounds, or about 3 dollars. At lunch, the BCU nursing student told us about her clinical experience. They refer to their clinicals as placements, and are regularly in the hospital every other semester. Semesters where they are not in the hospital, nursing students focus on theory and attend more classes at the University’s campus. Nursing students at BCU work three, thirteen-hour shifts a week during placement semesters. This is different from the US, where we begin clinicals with short rotations once a week. Students then work their way up to longer and more frequent shifts each semester.
The BCU student talked with us about the UK healthcare system. In the United Kingdom, they have subsidized healthcare. This means that all necessary healthcare such as appointments, surgeries, and medicines for lifelong illnesses are all free to citizens. I learned that while subsidized healthcare is great for patients, it is not beneficial for healthcare staff. Because there are so many patients receiving free care, there is a high influx of patients and low staffing. The student shared that she often has to rotate or lift patients all by herself simply because there are not enough RNs to supervise the care. She said nurses can have 24 patients at once dues to shortage, which is an outlandish ratio. Since healthcare is not privatized, healthcare workers also make less money to do more work. She said the starting salary for RNs is about 14 pounds or 17.5 USD an hour. For comparison, in the US, starting RNs typically make at least 30 dollars an hour. This is less incentive for people to enter the field of nursing, which contributes to the staff shortage.
After our day at BCU, we visited the Birmingham Public Library. The library featured beautiful architecture and two floors with outdoor garden areas. We discussed the importance of having physical books in libraries, even though many libraries are moving to online databases. I learned that specific searching on the internet can lead to confirmation bias, since we only see results we specifically seek out. When in a physical library, however, there are multiple options presented to the reader, which promotes exploration of new ideas. I also noticed that the building was designed to promote inclusivity. The entrances and elevators were handicap accessible, and signs in the building all included braille. The seating was very clean and open, and there was also seating outdoors that provided comfortable options for the public. The upper garden area had a beautiful view of the city, as you can see in the cover photo of this blog!
Tomorrow we are headed to the Children’s Hospital with BCU staff for a tour. I’m excited to learn more about the clinical setting in the UK, and to hear from more staff and students!
Me and a Mannequin from the School of Nursing simulation lab
Enjoying “high tea” at BCU