Today, any thoughts that I could turn myself into a morning person were thrown out the window with today’s early start. Today we travel over to Pilar to visit the Universidad de Austral other campus, and to tour the connecting hospital. Being a private hospital, the university facility was very similar to hospitals here in the US. We were led through the hospital by two nurses who explained the differences in our education and certification. Where in the US we have the NCLEX to standardize care across the country, that is not the case in Argentina. Because of this nursing schools across the country do not have a standard for education. In response to this, the University Hospital enacted a mentor system and a standard for patient assessment. Nurses are also allowed to practice in any province with no recertification within different provinces. Instead, they would turn in their nursing card and ask for their province of work to be changed. Additionally, a standard nurse only spends two years in school while high-education nurses spend four and a half to five years. While the responsibilities and titles are different, they are similar to our LPNs and specialized RNs. Nursing students also start their clinical work during their first semester in school. Argentinian nurses take classes on each section of the hospital and how to care for the patients in each sector. For example, they would take a course in the NICU or oncology. 

Following our hospital visit, we were able to visit with the students in Austral. One of the students spoke of how she rode horseback and how her cousin was trying to get an academic scholarship for tennis. They were shocked to learn that I have women friends who play tackle rugby, as only the men’s team plays tackle whereas the women play flag. we talked about how different it is to learn languages for us and went on about our hobbies and interests.

we ended the night in the best way possible: a beautiful steak dinner with friends. Here I was able to try cow thymus under the inconspicuous name of “sweet bread”. Furthermore, we proved our worth as nursing students as we all jumped out of our seats when our one friend took a little too big a bite. Luckily none of us had to perform the Heimlich. Safe to say, another fabulous day in Argentina has come to a close. 

For those readers who did not grow up with Disney channel- “TTI” was a segment standing for “the time I.” I personally think I would make a great addition to this program.