Today was my fourth day in Birmingham! We had a few lectures, the opportunity to learn more about the upcoming presentations and research paper, and lastly the story of a head nurse. Making our way to BCU has become a lot easier to remember and I feel like I have learned my way around the building. The first lecture that we had was on primary nursing. There are many differences in their medical care compared to the states such as the cost of prescription drugs. In the UK a prescription drug is about ten pounds whereas in the US it is far more expensive than that and the majority use insurance to help cover their prescriptions. Additionally, when it comes to long-term issues such as diabetes, thyroid, etc. NHS provides free medication for those individuals. This I thought was something I wished that they would do in the states, instead, they just continue to increase the cost of medications. However, there was one thing they said that made me realize even though they have free healthcare and from an outside perspective it may seem ideal there are still major issues. For example, their ambulances tend to not arrive quickly when someone dials for emergency services. In the UK they help people first based on a priority scale so say an elderly person falls and cannot get up they are not a priority to get to and help. In the lecture they mentioned that sometimes people in those situations have to wait hours to receive assistance. In the US I have never heard of an ambulance taking even an hour to get anywhere, we may have to pay a costly amount for our healthcare but at least we can rely on it. After this lecture we took a break to have lunch, and I have actually been enjoying going to their cafeteria. Today I had a jacket potato with cheese and a banana yogurt parfait. I still cannot get over how affordable the food at BCU is and am always shocked when I only have to pay four pounds for a meal including the drink.
After we got back from lunch we talked about our upcoming presentation along with the research paper we will have to write by the end of June. Then our last lecturer of the day came in who is a head nurse at a hospital. She talked about her story of how she got into that position and gave us background on her upbringing. Her story was so interesting to hear because I swear, she never had free time she always keeps busy. It is clear she is an extremely determined and hardworking woman and provided some helpful advice to all the nursing majors in the room. Once we were wrapped up with all of the classes we headed back to the hotel where you could either meet up at dinner with BCU students who have previously travelled abroad to Pittsburgh or just stay in. I decided to go to the dinner and beforehand we went to TK Maxx and an ice cream truck (that’s right, ice cream before dinner). Then we made it to the restaurant, and it was nice talking to all of the BCU students and hearing their experience in Pennsylvania. Today was overall a more relaxed day than the previous ones and I am looking forward to tomorrow when we get to tour Stratford!
