Today was our last day at BCU! We got up this morning and turned in our hotel keys, making our way to BCU for the last time. When we got there, we had a lecture about smoking and cardiovascular disease(CVD). The statistics she mentioned about how cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death globally and how, in the US, 1 person dies every 33 seconds were very eye-opening. One of the things I learned about was the precautions and plans the US and the UK have in place to try to reduce CVD. Specifically for the UK, the NHS has a 10-year ‘long-term plan’ which tries to prevent smoking in future generations. They have already banned indoor smoking and are planning to stop smoking outside of hospitals and schools, which I think are great steps to prevent children from starting smoking so early or from getting too exposed to the smoke.

We then had the opportunity to tour BCU’s simulation labs, which were so cool to see. The first room we stopped in had a couple of beds with adult mannequins in them. They were very similar to the ones we have at Pitt campus in the fact that you can get a pulse on them and that they were pretty realistic. I was really interested in the baby mannequins. They even had screaming and crying sounds and had arm and leg movements that were similar to how babies moved. These mannequins also had a brachial pulse to them and had different colors show on their skin to show jaundice or flushed skin, which I thought was really interesting. In the room, we got to hold some other mannequin babies that had the weight of an actual baby and also got to see an example of a premature baby.

One of the rooms I found really interesting was the sim lab of an apartment. The nursing students would practice community nursing skills in this room, where they would be monitored by surveillance cameras and would get feedback through the microphones in the mock apartment. The goal was for the students to use their surroundings and critical thinking skills to come up with the problem and possible solutions to address the issue. I thought it was a very smart way to expose the students to these types of situations.

To end the day at BCU, we had a lecture about learning disabilities nursing. I thought it was fascinating that you had to be diagnosed with a learning disability before the age of 18 for it to be classified as an actual learning disability. After 18, it’s called an acquired brain injury. The main thing I got from this lecture was that every adult has the right to make their own decisions for themselves, including people with learning disabilities. As a nurse, you also have to think about how their mental health can be affected by their learning disability, so providing that holistic care is definitely important.

We ended our time at BCU by saying goodbye to Ana. It was so sad to leave her behind, but I couldn’t be more grateful for everything she did for us; she truly put a smile on my face every day. We got on the bus and drove about 3 hours to London, which is so exciting. We had dinner with a couple of Pitt alumni, which was really fun to hear about the changes the school has made since they left. Can’t wait to start all the fun sightseeing tomorrow and spend a wonderful day in London!