Day 6 in Bilbao was amazing! We started off with a tour of Hospital Basurto. It was so cool! It was structured more like a neighborhood with many different buildings connected by walkways and underground tunnels rather than a traditional hospital. We began the tour with a presentation from the staff. They told us about their hospital, the healthcare system in Spain, and their used of bioengineering. Everything was so interesting and cool! My favorite part was when the bioengineer showed how he made a virtual tour of the hospital to help patients find where they need to go easier. I thought that this was so useful and should be applied to more hospitals in the United States too.
Next, we began the tour of the facilities. My group started in the NICU. This was my favorite part! It was so cool to be able to see all of the babies and how their NICU was structured. One of the nurses who worked there shared with us more details about her job too. Next, we went to the labor and delivery unit. On one of the screens we were able to see a woman’s vitals as she was about to give birth and having contractions. It was so cool to be able to see how the babies heart rate changed each contraction. After that, we went to the basement and got a tour of the inner workings of the facilities. We learned about the air purification, electrical, and water systems. Until then, I never really thought about what kept a hospital running and it was so nice to see how it all worked. Next, we went to the microbiology lab. Last year, I took microbiology and actually recognized a lot of the things that out tour guide was mentioning like the Gram stains and Blood Agar. I thought that it was so fascinating to see the real application of what I learned. Finally, we toured the ICU and the pediatric unit. Here, I learned that their ICU was able to start running in 2 hours if there was an emergency. I thought that this was so impressive and worth noting.
After our tour, we went to the Guggenheim museum. My favorite exhibit was the one with the wires. I could tell a lot of work went into it! Overall, another great day!