It’s nearing the end of our first week in Bilbao and we have already explored so much, yet have much to see! We started off our day by visiting the hospital Basurto. This was a large public hospital in Bilbao. The hospital had a unique design in that each section was in its own separate building. This was originally intended to cut down on transmission of illness between the different areas of the hospital. It was a beautiful hospital that honestly felt like a university campus because of all of the matching buildings surrounded by gardens and trees. We started off our visit with a couple of lectures from different staff in the hospital. We had nurses speak to us about their experiences caring for patients, an engineer discuss his latest project with us, and other administrative staff give an overview of operations at the hospital. The presentations were very interesting and gave a fascinating comparison between Basurto and the Hospital Gorliz we visited a couple days ago. Although both are public hospitals, they had different environments and operations. Next we split up into smaller groups to tour the hospital. Our tour guide was a nurse who has been working in nursing for around 15 years. She also lived in the United States for 5 years, so she was able to compare the culture and work environment in the US to Spain. First we visited the Neo-Natal Unit/NICU. It was amazing to see this section of the hospital. As someone who was cared for in a NICU, I am very interested to see how biomedical devices and engineering can help treat and care for babies. Next we moved up to the labor and delivery unit. I was very interested in the monitoring systems used to track the mother’s and baby’s health before labor. We were able to see their heartbeats, uterine activity, and contractions on the nurses station monitoring screens. After that we went into the pediatric ER. I appreciated how they separated the pediatric and adult emergency rooms, because I believe it makes for a less stressful and overall better experience. We also visited an Intensive Care Unit. While it was not currently in use, according to the nurses, it could be fully operational within 2 hours if needed. In addition to patient care areas, we also visited non-patient areas such as the laboratories used for sample testing and the HVAC and energy control rooms. The laboratories were fascinating because it is amazing how efficiently and accurately they can discover important health information from small samples. While the labs don’t interact with patients, they are crucial to healthcare and treatment. Our final stop was the HVAC and energy systems rooms. While underappreciated and often forgotten about, the systems running the hospital are incredibly important. Without proper heating, cooling, water, and energy supplies, the hospital would not be able to function. Overall it was a great visit to the hospital Basurto, filled with lots of new and interesting information.
In the afternoon we visited the Guggenheim. It was an incredible building that was filled with beautiful artwork. The building was stunning inside and out, with curving walls and interesting architecture. My favorite exhibit were the unique wire sculptures created by artist Ruth Asawa. Lots of the other exhibits also had very interesting artwork in a variety of mediums. After the Guggenheim we got dinner and explored more of the city. Overall it was a great day with a good balance of academic learning and fun experiences around Bilbao.