Hi everyone! Today we went back to BCU and had some lectures on school nurses and mental health. We also had a lovely walking tour of the city of Birmingham! Through all of this, we also learned some key information regarding our research project, and I’m very excited to share!
Our first topic of the day after arriving at BCU was a lecture from a school nurse and teacher named Samantha. She was very insightful and gave us a lot of information regarding school nursing, foster care, educational resources, and more, and a lot of this was very applicable to my research. The first thing I learned here is that school nurses in the United States are a lot different than school nurses here. In the United States, school nurses are nurses that have an office in the school, and give kids care if the feel sick or get injured while in school. School nurses in the UK on the other hand, have a lot more roles. They work in health centers in the community and do so many things from immunizations, help with mental health, safeguarding, and many other services for school age children. Most of these services are meant to help students maintain their health so they can flourish and do well in school. This is very nice, as in the US it does not seem like there are as many people to check on students and make sure they are able to do their best in school. It seems like they have so many responsibilities and fill the roles that in the US we have separate jobs for. This is very interesting for our research, as it seems like school nurses play a massive role in helping to limit interruptions of students’ education in various areas, not just physical health.
After the nursing lecture, we headed over to the BCU cafeteria for lunch. This was my first time eating at BCU, and I have to say it was pretty good. I got a noodle and meat sauce dish, cauliflower soup, and a lime flavored Diet Coke. All of it was very good, and I have not seen these lime Cokes in the US yet. I also noticed that in the eating area, and everywhere in the UK, there were sustainable utensils such as wooden spoons and paper straws. I think it is very cool that so many places use sustainable resources, and I’d like to see the US incorporate these things more.
After some lunch in the cafeteria, we came back to the classroom for another lecture on mental health by some nurses who specialize in mental health care. They started with some history regarding the East India Company and how they colonized India and made Hong Kong. At first I was unsure why we were going into the history so deeply, but the speakers did a brilliant job of tying it into the foundations of mental health in the United Kingdom. We learned about 3 different authors in the psychiatric field. The first was Joanna Moncrieff, who believes that drugs should be the last resort for patients, and removing the stigma around seeking mental health help can be very helpful for patients. The next author was a psychologist named Lucy Johnstone who focuses her writing on how the diagnosis process and theory works as well as a power imbalance being a key issue in psychiatry. Lastly, we learned about Freya Collier-Sewell who writes about the mental health nursing landscape and how it could improve. Overall, learning about these three authors was very interesting and makes me want to dive deeper into their works for my research and personal interest.
Lastly, we had 2 speakers talk to us about the Windrush Era and black heritage, including a testimony from someone who actually lived through the era. Alongside that, we took a walking tour of the city with Black Heritage Walks Network, who gave us new insights on some new pieces of history as well as giving us new information on landmarks we’ve already seen! It was very cool seeing Birmingham in this new light, and definitely helped me understand more of the diverse history of Birmingham.
In conclusion, today was filled with so much information! Hearing from nurses on how they help childrens’ educational experiences and modern mental health research was super informative! Furthermore, learning about the Windrush era by actually walking around the city was very insightful and meaningful. Amazing day!