Hi everyone! Today was our first day working with Birmingham City University, the university we will be working with for the reminder of our time here in the United Kingdom. We got a tour of the facility, food, and a lot of information regarding the educational and nursing practices at BCU and in the UK as a whole, and I’m excited to share everything I learned!

First, we talked about the nursing program at BCU, which was similar and different to ours in a few ways. We met Jemma, a nursing student at BCU who talked to us alot about her studies. The biggest difference from her nursing experience and ones in the United States was that her program is only 3 years as opposed to ours as a full, 4 year degree. The reason for this is not that they learn less, but that they have school during summer and only having some small breaks in the winter and spring. I applaud this work ethic because if I had to attend univeristy without looking ahead to summer, it would be so much harder. As we continue to work with the university, I want to ask if they have any research on how this rigorous schedule affects sstudents’ mental health. My reseach assignment is mainly focused on education regarding students with interrupted education and from diverse backgrounds, but I can only imagine this stress is amplified in those children.

Another key take away I had from BCU and secondary education as a whole was their focuson the Students Union, which had some representatives come and talk to us. BCU’s student union is an indipendent organization ran by students that is responsible for ensuring they all have a good experience at University. They have “societies,” which sound similar to clubs in the US, for a wide range of topics including sports, career paths, religion, and ethic backgrounds. This is definitely something I want to look into more and see if it is a theme across the UK because these diverse socieities seem like an amazing way for students who come from different backgrounds to be included and have a positive university experience, which is a large part of my research plan.

Another thing I learned from the guest speakers today was the overall structure of schools in the UK. Each school has a “head teacher,” which sounds like a principal for us, and then other other faculty members under them including teachers and assistant teachers, who all work in unison to run the programs. They also said the schools are overseen by a larger, federal body, and are rated withing a range “outstanding” to “inadequate” in a variety of categories. We have a similar system in the US, but the intersting part was how they deal with it. One of the speakers said that underperforming schools are usually given more federal funding to turn things around, and this always seems to work. In the US, however, underperforming schools are penalized and can be completely shut down if they do not improve. This is very interesting, as if the Uk method of handeling inadequacies is so effective, I wonder why we don’t integrate this method in the US.

One lady said that over 70% of her students spoke another language as a native language, which was super interesting. We asked how they can help overcome this barrier, and she gave a few solutions. One cool thing she said was that teaching assistants often come from the community the teach in, so they often speak the language of the area near the school and can help witht his barrier. They also said they aim to use more visuals in their teaching, such as numbers and times tables, which sounds like a great idea!

Speaking of translation, another way it is used effectively is in the hospitals. The UK hospitals get a large amount of patients who don’t speak English as their main language, so it can be hard to give proper care to them. One intersting service they use for this is a phone service, where you can book translators to help the sitation over the phone. I’ve never heard of this before, but it sounds really cool and effective. In the US, I know the majority of us only speak English, so I’m intersted to research if we have a similar service here or alternatives.

Overall, I had a great day today. BCU has a beaituful campus, and it was so cool to hear from all of the educators and guest speakers on their practices. Tomorrow we are visiting the children’s hospital, which will be super intersting, so stay tuned!