This morning we visited Paroissien Hospital. First impression was the outside of the hospital. There were piles of trash right outside the door we entered. The hospital is located in a low income area, and they do not have much funding. The building was originally built to assist the military but then became a hospital. The area contains about 3 million people, and this is the most popular hospital that people in the area go to. There were animals roaming through the hospital, lots of exposed wiring and pipes, cracked windows, holes in the flooring and ceiling. Paroissien Hospital faced three major floods, and they are still reaping the effects of these floods.
This hospital had way less funding than the hospital in San Isidro. The hospital in San Isidro was in a welfare municipality and received higher taxes from the community which allowed them to make more improvements to their hospital. Though both hospitals were public, there existed a huge difference in structures and resources. While Paroissien treats a larger influx of patients, the money they receive is not enough to improve the structural issues they encounter. On the other hand, because San Isidro limits their patients to just the ones inside their municipality, they are able to better distribute the higher funds they receive to make improvements in many areas at once.
After we went to the University where we ate lunch and talked to some of the nursing students that attended the university about their experiences and how they differ from the ones back at Pitt. They showed us their simulation labs and practiced a simulation for us to watch. It was cool to see how similar the nursing school was to our back home, especially for a public university.