Today we visited a private hospital and university in the neighborhood of Pilar, right outside of Buenos Aires. We had a brief lecture about nursing in Argentina and then we toured the university hospital. After the tour we had the chance to meet with some students from the University of Austral and we had lunch as a group.

While at the Hospital we learned about several of the challenges that the Austral faces such as staffing and funding challenges that are common within the Argentinian healthcare industry. As a university and nonprofit hospital, Austral is much less affected by these challenges as compared to other private hospitals, but challenges still remain. Within Argentina only two out of every ten nurses are considered a BSN or highly trained, and the nursing profession as a whole is not as well regarded compared to other countries which has led to issues staffing qualified nurses. Austral has a direct college to hospital pipeline so within their hospital, 67 percent of nurses are considered highly trained.

Along with these staffing issues, the economic conditions of the country are not stable which has led to challenges with job retention and contracts. Private hospitals contract with unions and insurance companies for customers so the bidding for these contracts is quite intense and the unstable economic conditions makes it difficult for private hospitals to accurately bid on contracts and maintain their source of income. As a not for profit Austral does not have to worry as much about the bidding for these contracts, but the economic conditions have led to a broader loss of insurance as people have lost their jobs and their coverage.