With an early start today, we had plenty of time to fit in lots of interesting activities. Our first stop was the Universidad Austral hospital, a private hospital about an hour outside of Buenos Aires. We spoke first with the Dr. Marcelo Pellizzari and Mariano Pelorosso about the structure, history, and functions of the hospital and university. They had a lot of insights into the challenges that the private sector faces, and it was interesting to see how those difficulties interacted with their status as a teaching hospital. We then took a tour with two nurses that worked at the hospital, and this was a particularly special experience. As we walked around the different wards, we discussed some of the differences between the process of becoming a nurse in the US and in Argentina.
In Argentina, there are two general pathways to becoming a nurse. One is a three year program, somewhat similar to an LPN program in the US, where you learn the basics of caring for adults and children, but not neonates or critical care. The other option is continuing for another two years to focus more on specialties like neonatology, critical care, healthcare management, and research. Regardless of the path a nurse takes, they do not have to take any standardized test like the NCLEX in the US. Our guides discussed how this can cause some issues, as even some nurses with years of experience may come to work at the hospital and lack some fundamental skills that they require. To help even out the knowledge base, the hospital requires new hires to go through an orientation period where the nurse is paired with a preceptor and gradually worked up to a full patient load. This is very similar to the US, except that they also include days dedicated to theoretical classes. Also, unlike the US, there are no advanced practice nurses in Argentina. One of our guides had gotten her masters in pediatric oncology, but that is more of an informal title. She said that despite her additional training, she provides the same care that a nurse who completed the three year program does. This has some advantages in terms of ensuring that there are enough human resources to care for patients.
After our tour, we headed to the Universidad Austral undergraduate campus to have a mixer with some of the students there. It was great to talk with students in the same year as us and compare experiences. One major difference between university in Argentina is that most students live off campus their entire time at school. One person we talked to lived in Buenos Aires, so she had to commute an hour or so every day to campus.
Up next we visited San Isidro public hospital. Here, we had a discussion with sub secretary of health for the country of San Isidro, Maria Richards. Something that I really loved about this talk was that Maria Richards was a nurse who had completed an MBA and was now involved more in healthcare management. It was interesting to see how her experiences as a nurse for over ten years influenced her decisions regarding resource allocation and priority setting. This being similar to the path that I want to take in my career, I really enjoyed hearing her discuss her professional experiences. After the lecture, we did a short tour of the hospital. While it again wasn’t quite as nice as the private hospitals like Universidad Austral and Los Arcos, San Isidro was full of very knowledgeable providers who are committed to a life of helping others. It is really amazing to see people motivated for reasons other than money or working conditions unlike in the US. We again got to walk through some of the wards, and the ICU in particular was completely equipped to deal with high complexity patients. After our third bus ride back to the hotel, we had another amazing day in Argentina in the books!
