Hey!! Reporting back on the first few days in Spain (and traveling)!! We spent all day Saturday flying from Pittsburgh to North Carolina and then to Madrid. With little to no sleep, we made it through the hour-long customs line and got on a bus for a city tour on Sunday morning. It is stunning! After we got off the bus, we continued the tour on foot, seeing many beautiful landmarks, including the Royal Palace of Madrid and Plaza Mayor. After a delicious lunch with the squad, we went to the train station to set off for Bilbao. Practically everyone passed out on the train because we were so exhausted, but we pushed through and arrived late Sunday night.
Day 1 in Bilbao was so amazing, it will be hard to top. To start off, it is such a gorgeous city. We took the metro to Basurto Hospital, where we had a lovely presentation about nursing and engineering in Spain, and also celebrated a little because it was International Day of Nursing! After the presentation, we got a bit of a tour and then had a chance to talk to the nurses and ask questions and such. It was super cool to discuss the similarities and differences in our nursing curriculum and the jobs afterward. In Spain, students have to take a test and score within a high range just to get into nursing school. Then they continue onto a 4-year program with approximately 240 credits. They have a similar curriculum from there, but afterward, they have to take another exam to get their placement. The higher the score, the more likely they are to get their preference of hospitals and the type of nursing they want to do. But in general, every nursing student is taught to be able to do any type of job. Every four years, they have to retake the exam again, and it can determine a raise or a job change for the future.
The next place we went was the BioBizkaia Health Research Institute. Our group split up, half got to see their 3D printing lab, and the other half (which I was in) got to see the VR lab. The virtual reality lab was quite fascinating because the researchers and programmers spent over 3 years developing different healthcare-specific rooms where doctors, surgeons, nurses, etc., can come and train. We got to test it out, and our simulation room was about triage. It had patients come in, and you could ask a series of questions to determine their level of care needed. It was super cool to see the layout. I was especially proud that I was able to read and understand the language since it was all in Spanish. After we met back up and discussed research implementation in their exercise science lab. One major point mentioned during the presentation was how different healthcare is in Spain compared to the U.S., especially when it comes to pricing and insurance coverage. These differences significantly impact how healthcare is implemented in each country.
We had lunch as a group and then went off to our program presentation, where we continued introductions and went over the itinerary for the trip. I am so excited for what’s to come and to share all about it. The rest of the evening is our free time to explore the city more and I can’t wait to take so many pictures. Catch you next blog post!
– Paige Colson