Today, I started off the day by getting ready and getting myself a very nice breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast, our group met together and we all walked to the university campus. It was quite the walk that early in the morning but I still enjoyed it though! Once we arrived at the university campus, we met up with Chinenye and were led to the same classroom from yesterday. We all took a seat getting ready to listen to some interesting lectures.
The first lecture we had was about public health in the UK and this was presented by Dr. Sara Zarti. She is a medical doctor (MBBS) who later found a strong passion for public health. According to WHO, the World Health Association, public health is the art and science of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through organized societal efforts. There are three main pillars to public health: health prevention, health promotion, and health protection. These three pillars are necessary and crucial for public health to function and reach the people of a country. Instead of just looking at an individual person’s diagnosis, public health allows us to look at patients as a whole, in a viewpoint of family or community. Dr. Sara also shared many of the UK public health systems, such as National Health Service (NHS) England, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), etc. It is very interesting to see how each country tackles its own different priorities differently and strives to make a positive change in society. Furthermore, we also talked about social discriminants of health (SDH) which is pretty much the different conditions that people are born, grow, live, work, and age in. SDH are looked at in public health and many interventions are taken in order to push to prevention of certain conditions/things and simultaneously is cost effective. If there is one thing that was emphasized the most, it was the fact that the US and UK policies in public health are different. This is because in the UK, policies are nationwide. This means that the entire country functions under the same policy. However, in the US, state governments and local governments also have control in some matters, making policies to differ from place to place in the same county. After learning about this, I feel like it may be better to have policies nationwide so that It is easy to regulate and assist the community in attaining any public health goals that are set.
The next lecture we had was related to midwifery. Even before this lecture started, I was really looking forward to it because I had always been interested in knowing more about this field but didn’t have any prior knowledge. This lecture was very engaging and interactive, which made it very easy to pay attention to and listen. I came to realize that midwives are way more prevalent in the UK than in the US. In the UK, midwives are autonomous and independent when working. They are registered as completely autonomous practitioners, allowing them to make medical decisions themselves without referring to a medical doctor. This means that a midwife is fully accountable for the decisions and outcomes of a patient. I found this very cool and interesting. In addition, to become a midwife in the UK, one had to go to college for 3 years and graduate with a degree. On the other hand, in the US, individuals must finish their BSN and then go on further to get their master’s degree to become a midwife. The role of a midwife is to give support to the mother and the baby throughout pregnancy, labour, delivery, and postpartum. This can include anything ranging from providing direct care to the mom or child to teaching/educating new mothers/families. Midwifery is women-centered care, which means that the midwife will only do what the mother/woman says or asks to do. The midwife will not do anything without the mother’s consent, whether that means causing potential harm to the mother or child. Another thing I learned is that abortion is allowed at any time during pregnancy in the UK. However, it is usually said to have abortion performed before the 12 week mark. If abortion needs to be done after the 12 weeks mark, then 2 medical providers need to sign forms. To end the lecture, I learned that there is a significant low staff shortage for midwives. However, midwives are absolutely necessary to support vulnerable women and improve overall outcomes and satisfaction.
Next, we had a break for lunch and this is when I realized I had misplaced my debit card. After I ate lunch, I informed the professor. She told me to head back to our hotel and double check if my debit card was there because I was suspicious that I had left it in the room. Immediately, I headed back to the hotel by myself. I was a little nervous because I wasn’t sure if I knew the way back because I did not have the directions on my phone due to the lack of data. However, I somehow managed to pull it off and reached the hotel room. I also found my debit card in the room and started my way back to the college again. By the time I reached the college, I had missed a little bit of the next lecture, which was about mental health. The mental health in the UK lecture was given by Jonathan. It took me a while to catch up on where we were in the lecture, but soon I was able to follow along. We heard many stories he had gone through with his own mental health patients. We talked about hallucinations and voices that could be heard by mental health patients. In a way, these stories were very scary and even sad and unexpected at times. Before the ending of this lecture, one thing that really stood out to me was how he talked about empathy. Empathy isn’t just putting yourself in another’s shoes and seeing it in their point of view. That is only a part of it and there is more additional stuff. While seeing it from their point of view, we should not be letting ourselves or our thoughts/feelings come in the way. Instead, we should truly see their view and how they would perceive it without any bias on our end. I have always known this characteristic is important to be a compassionate person in any career, especially nursing. This is because nurses constantly work with others so it is required to be able to look in the point of view of their patients.
After the lecture about mental health, we went on a black heritage walk. This was led by Marcia. She showed us different parts of the city of Birmingham and how it contributed to the history of the city, which dates all the way back to the 1800s. The way Marcia talked to us truly showed how passionate she was about history and the spreading of history knowledge about Birmingham. This truly made the walk more engaging and made me curious to learn more. I really enjoyed not only looking at many monuments and statues but knowing the background history of why it was there and what the story was.
Finally, after the walk, we went to a group dinner at a Jamaican restaurant named Jamaya. I was a little nervous about trying a brand new cuisine but it ended up not being that bad! After dinner, a smaller group of us went to get ice cream/gelato, which was absolutely delicious. Then, we all called it a day and came back to the hotel to rest up and refuel for the next day!
