This morning we started out the day with a visit to Hospital Basturto. We began our visit with a few presentations from various nurses and an engineer. The nurses discussed their education pathway and how nurses in Spain can specialize in different areas of patient care. Additionally, we listened to a presentation by another nurse who has been working in Spain for many years, but also recently passed the NCLEX and in the future will be working as a nurse in Florida. The last speaker was a biomedical engineer that worked for the hospital. He showed us many of the different projects he has recently been working on including an application to help patients preparation prepare for surgeries, virtual reality programs to help train healthcare professionals, and 3D replications of patients scans.
After the presentations we split into four different groups and toured the hospital. The first area that I saw was the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). We were able to see many of the different monitors and devices that the nurses use to help care for the patients. The nurse guiding us through our tour also explained many of the different conditions that their patients have and how they help both the parents and the children manage these. After the visit to the NICU we visited the labor and delivery floor. On this floor the nurse walked us through many of the different rooms and tools they use. Differently from the United States, the majority of routine births in Spain are performed by nurses and the doctor is only called in if there is an issue. While at Basturto we were able to see the offices of the engineers they employ and some of the machines they are responsible for maintaining. We were able to see the devices that bring water to each of the rooms, connect the computers to WIFI, the hospital power generator, and devices that filter air. This was very interesting as these are not common things you think of when envisioning the maintenance of a hospital, as the engineers work extremely hard to ensure there is no issues or lapses that allows people to notice.
In the afternoon we went to the Guggenheim and got to walk around the museum for a few hours. The art was pretty cool although I am not a huge modern art fan. The museum was a lot smaller inside than I expected from looking at it from the outside. Overall, it was another amazing day!