Today was one of my favorite days so far in Spain! We started off the day a bit earlier than usual, with breakfast at the hotel. We then walked to the engineering school, where we met one of the professors Mikel to walk over the Hospital Basurto. Once we arrived at the hospital, we received multiple presentations from the faculty at the hospital about the history of the Basurto Hospital, the nursing degree in Spain, and how bioengineering is intertwined with the medical profession to form new healthcare innovations. One particular thing that I learned that was different from the U.S. was that in order to enter a nursing specialty in Spain, you have to take an exam where you are ranked based on scores and then get to choose a specialty based on that rank.
After the presentations, we got split up into groups where my group went with our amazing tour guide Dario around the whole hospital. We got toured around by a midwife around the labor and delivery unit, which was super cool and we even heard a baby being born in the room next door! We also got a tour of the Pediatric ER unit, where I observed all of the different medications and supplies that they had for different weights of children, which is different from other adult units. My favorite unit that we toured was the neonatal unit, where we got to see all of the moms and babies in the NICU, which was incredible. While some of the babies were very small, it was so fascinating to see all that the nurses and doctors do to protect and help the babies grow. When we left the unit, we got to see a family that was visiting the NICU with their strong, healthy baby that was once in the unit, which was so heartwarming. We also got toured around the quarantine/overflow unit, which had rooms that had negative pressure to prevent the spread of disease. After visiting all of the patient units, we got toured around the microbiology laboratory, where I saw a lot of the techniques that I learned in class this year, which was super cool. Finally, we toured the basement of the hospital where all the electricity, batteries, and wiring for the hospital was kept, which was super complex and cool to see how power was distributed to the whole hospital.
After bidding goodbyes to the incredible faculty at the Basurto Hospital, we walked back to the engineering school for lunch before receiving a quick presentation on a car that the engineering students were building for a race that they participate in with other engineering programs around the world. It was super cool to hear about how the car worked and was tested, and getting to see the students hard at work to finish up the project! Once we finished up at the engineering school, we walked to one of the most famous sites in Bilbao: the Guggenheim Museum! Throughout the museum, we got to see some really cool modern art exhibits, as well as paintings from famous artists such as Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat! After the museum, a group of us got some delicious cookies on the way back to the hotel before taking a much needed nap. We then went out for dinner and got burgers and hung out all as a group, which was super fun! While it was tiring, it was one of my favorite days yet and I can’t believe we are almost halfway through the trip.
(These cookies were DELICIOUS.)