Today we got to tour one public hospital called Garoissien. They are only funded by their province and maintain most of the populations health. While touring we met two nursing students Estrella and Lara. They were best friends and showed us a great time! The hospital was set up similar to others we had seen but seemed more closed off and private. In this hospital their busiest time is in the morning so when we arrived it was slow. The hospital struggles with their employment of doctors as many choose to prioritize their other private hospital duties due to better salaries. In their ICU’s though they are able to have 2 patients per nurse and 8 patients per doctor which seems manageable. We were also able to see many pathology sides of the hospital. After the hospital tour we went to the university National La Matanza and enjoyed speeches from administration and nursing professors about the University.
In the outer municipalities of Buenos Aires tend to have low income public hospitals. This community struggled with primarily car accidents and assaults. Economically the residents live poorer which impacts the hospitals income as they rely on taxes and funding from the public as well as their province. Compared to some of the Urban hospitals we have seen both private and public this hospital seemed significantly less staffed. While they are working on building a new ICU and infrastructure there was much outdated compared to Argentina standards. When speaking to the students they explained that attending public schools limits the resources to get jobs in private hospitals with more substantial pay. Overall the poverty of the area unfortunately matched the quality of the hospitals. If there was a way to support lower income outskirts by feeding in money from higher income inner cities funding I think it would not only improve the hospitals but the municipalities themselves. Overall it was such a great day to see how similar nursing school is from the US and different aspects of a more rural public hospital.
