{"id":178494,"date":"2025-06-12T13:31:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T13:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/178494\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T13:31:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T13:31:18","slug":"students-immerse-in-uk-culture-to-understand-the-nhs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/178494\/","title":{"rendered":"Students Immerse in UK Culture to Understand the NHS"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dialogues of Civilizations course in London offers students a front row seat to hearing from practitioners and former lawmakers about the National Health Service.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot <\/p>\n

\"StudentsStudents on the \u2018Healthcare and culture in the UK\u2019 Dialogues of Civilization course visited the medical exhibitions at London\u2019s Science Museum. Photo by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2014 For years, clinical professor Maureen Watkins had taught what the textbook said when it came to explaining the U.K. health model to her students on the administrative health care course.<\/p>\n

But she decided that, in order to test the theory, there really was no better way to understand and teach it than to become immersed in the country itself.<\/p>\n

So the board-certified clinical specialist in orthopedic physical therapy decided to set up a Dialogues of Civilizations course in London. \u201cHealth care and culture in the United Kingdom,\u201d now in its second year, gives Northeastern University students enrolled in the U.S. the opportunity to live and study in the U.K. capital for five weeks over the summer in order to understand the way health care and medicine have evolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been teaching that administrative health care course now for several years,\u201d explains Watkins<\/a>, \u201cand so when we start to talk about health care in other countries, we always say that the U.K. has a really great NHS system, because that\u2019s what the book says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I thought, why don\u2019t we go dig a little bit deeper? Let\u2019s see what we can find out and really do a better, deeper dive into the heritage. I chose the NHS because it is one of the oldest universal health care systems in the world and London because it has access to understanding its history.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students, through classroom learning, guest talks and cultural visits, are given the chance to compare how a nationalized health provision, in the form of Britain\u2019s National Health Service, fares in contrast to the insurance-led offerings found in the U.S.<\/p>\n

From visiting the Houses of Parliament in London, to day-tripping to Canterbury, which is steeped in English religious history, to spending time at the Surgeons\u2019 Hall Museums in Edinburgh, Scotland, Watkins says the out-of-class experience that forms part of the course enriches the students\u2019 learning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Students06\/09\/25 \u2013 LONDON, UK. \u2013 Students in the Dialogues of Civilization program in London visit the medical exhibitions at the Science Museum at Exhibition Rd, South Kensington, London, SW7 2DD on June, 9, 2025. Photo by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"Students06\/09\/25 \u2013 LONDON, UK. \u2013 Students in the Dialogues of Civilization program in London visit the medical exhibitions at the Science Museum at Exhibition Rd, South Kensington, London, SW7 2DD on June, 9, 2025. Photo by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"Northeastern06\/09\/25 \u2013 LONDON, UK. \u2013 Students in the Dialogues of Civilization program in London visit the medical exhibitions at the Science Museum at Exhibition Rd, South Kensington, London, SW7 2DD on June, 9, 2025. Photo by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\"Two06\/09\/25 \u2013 LONDON, UK. \u2013 Students in the Dialogues of Civilization program in London visit the medical exhibitions at the Science Museum at Exhibition Rd, South Kensington, London, SW7 2DD on June, 9, 2025. Photo by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University
\nThe dialogues course allowed students to immerse themselves in the U.K.\u2019s cultural life for five weeks as they studied one of the world\u2019s oldest universal healthcare systems. Photos by Carmen Valino for Northeastern University<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can see the relationship of politics, medicine, societal norms and how wealth and poverty play a role in it,\u201d continues Watkins. \u201cAnd they can see those stories over and over again at all these sites that we\u2019re going to. I think the fact that they\u2019re here and not just hearing it from me but hearing it at a variety of sites, it ties all those pieces together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went to Canterbury and had a tour there, and we heard how people would go there on pilgrimages to try to heal themselves. It is about understanding how this relationship with health care has been there since the beginning. I think they have really learned that health care is not just health care \u2014 there are all these interplays, with politics and policy playing a huge role.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isabel Desai, a major in health science and business administration, said the ability to mix classroom learning with experiences at museums and other cultural locations had brought the teaching alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s been a great balance of classroom activities and being able to explore,\u201d the 18-year-old from New Jersey said. \u201cIt is not just about your standard classroom learning but also cool cultural experiences as well that help put things in perspective. It brings it all to life much more than a textbook ever could.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students heard from guests who had different perspectives on Britain\u2019s health care system, with former lawmaker and health minister Steve Brine<\/a> and Lisa Henschen<\/a>, a long-serving manager in the NHS, both coming to Northeastern\u2019s London campus to speak with the class.<\/p>\n

On the day Northeastern Global News joined the class, they were hearing from Anthea Allen, a senior nurse who worked in intensive care units during the coronavirus pandemic. Allen published a book<\/a>, \u201cLife, Death and Biscuits: The inspiring diaries of a critical care nurse on the COVID front line,\u201d about efforts to improve morale and conditions for nurses during the crisis.<\/p>\n

The practitioner told the students about the \u201cnightmare\u201d she and her colleagues found themselves in at St George\u2019s Hospital in south London. Patients would die without her ever knowing their names and she didn\u2019t know who her colleagues were due to each of them being covered head to toe in personal protective equipment.<\/p>\n

As politicians pushed for more ventilators to be made available, Allen went onto the airwaves to get the message out that more skilled nurses would also be required to operate the machines, given that, in the NHS, they are more likely to apply them than a doctor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018I\u2019ve got to do something,\u2019\u201d she told the students. \u201cThis is absolutely crazy \u2014 the world does not know what is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nursing student Tyle Asamoah said hearing firsthand from people like Allen was useful as she wants to be part of creating a better health care system.<\/p>\n

\u201cPreviously, before coming here, I understood that both systems [the U.K. and the U.S.] have their own issues,\u201d said the 19-year-old from West Virginia. \u201cBut I really want to understand where both went wrong and how we can increase both productivity and the quality of care.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like having the opportunity to come here and learn, I really like it \u2014 it is very engaging, very immersive. Because just sitting in a classroom, yes, you\u2019re going to learn a lot, but actually having the ability to see it and hear it from people who actually live here and experience it, like we heard just from Anthea Allen, it\u2019s really inspiring, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saagar Shah, a first-year behavioural neuroscience major, said he decided to head to London for the course because he wanted to understand a health care system that he felt was \u201ccompletely opposite\u201d to the one he had experienced in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe U.S. is very privatized, it\u2019s a lot more financially focused, and that\u2019s really the priority there,\u201d said Shah, who hails from New Jersey. \u201cThe government really isn\u2019t that involved in general compared to the NHS, where it\u2019s pretty much all public, there is very little private financing and finance isn\u2019t really a concern for patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shah, 19, said it had been \u201cfascinating\u201d to hear from people who had \u201cactually worked within the system\u201d and to hear \u201cwhat their thoughts are\u201d on the NHS.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is one thing to read from a slide show or be lectured on something,\u201d he continued, \u201cbut it\u2019s completely different when you have people literally telling you their personal experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially people that either had such a large impact, like Steve Brine, who came to speak to us, or even the guest speaker [Allen], who worked the front lines and just happened to make a huge difference. She wasn\u2019t expecting to, but she did. That was very surprising and very interesting to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\tUniversity News<\/p>\n

\t\t\tRecent Stories<\/p>\n

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