Hi everyone! Today was a very long and productive day filled with plenty of tours and information regarding the Birmingham Women and Children’s Hospital and the WAITS charity, and I have a lot to share about both!
BWC
Our day started with a visit to the BWC, Birmingham Women and Children’s Hospital. This is a very large hospital that is split up into 3 parts: The womens building, childrens building, and the midwifery building. Today we just looked at the childrens building, but there was so much to see! We were fortunate enough to be guided throughout the whole building by some lovely nurses, and it was really interesting to see the similarities and differences from it compared to the UPMC Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh.
The first, and possibly biggest thing I noticed was the large focus on education at the school. When kids are receiving care for a long time, it is very easy for them to fall behind in school and miss important things, but BWC has many resources to help. They had a large educational section of the hospital with a classroom, computer room, and play areas. The teaching team there can contact their school to see what they are missing, and either teach it in the classroom, help them bedside, or set up virtual classes with other instructors. In contrast, our childrens hospital does have teaching services, but no dedicated classrooms and not to this scale. This was super relevant to my research because we are focusing on students with interrupted education, and being stuck in a hospital for a long time definitely can interrupt it. I also really appreciate how they have a full classroom, because I’ve experienced first-hand how it feels to be sick long enough to miss big parts of a school year, and having that setting can really be crucial to kids’ learning experiences.
Another part of the hospital that I found to be really intriguing for my research was the various religious sections. They get a vast array of people from different cultures at this hospital, and to help everyone feel comfortable and included, there were a few prayer rooms and a chapel for Christians, Muslims, and more to access. The chapel was preserved from the old building that was there before and it is absolutely beautiful! As a religious person, I think it’s so important for patients to have access to things like this to better their experience while battling illness or injury. Our children’s hospital offers religious services as well. For example, one time I was inpatient on Ash Wednesday, and they had a priest giving out ashes. However, we don’t have a beautiful chapel like BWC.
WAITS Charity
After our trip to BWC (and some lunch) we headed over to the building where the WAITS charity is located. WAITS (Women Acting In Today’s Society) is a charity (we call them nonprofits in the US) that focuses on helping women who experience domestic abuse. We spoke to many faculty members, including the CEO, who told us of the countless services they provide such as helping women speak up the police, get them safely relocated, and even providing them with food and job opportunities so they can get back on their feet in society. We have similar services in the United States, but they are usually all split up into separate programs, whereas here they have one big group that takes care of everything, and I personally like their approach better due to it being easier to access everything. This is also relevant to my research because many women who get abused, whether it be as a child or young adult, definitely expereinces effects in their educational careers, and I’m really glad to see something like this for women in the UK.
Overall, today was not only super intersting, but it was also filled with crucial information that I’ll be applying to my research and to my life back in the United States! I was able to learn a lot about how Birmingham handles the diverse patient population in healthcare, as well as how they help these students stay on top of school and not let hospital stays interrupt or limit their educational journies. I also got to hear from so many people who do wonderful work helping women recover from abusive situations. All of these experiences have been very interesting and I can alerady see my research ideas coming together! Tomorrow we are heading back to BCU to hear more from nurses, so more exciting things to come!