I did 4 months of practical training as a nurse student in Hospital Infantil Universitario Niño Jesús in Madrid. Everything was in Spanish, but as I had a good base (b2, in the end of the course c1) I didn’t have too many problems especially once I got used to it and learned the main hospital vocabulary. I enjoyed it a lot, Spanish is a great language and I improved everyday in it.
About my practice, I spent 10 weeks in oncology unit and then 4 weeks in emergency unit. And since it was children only hospital, my practices were both pediatric. I learned loads of clinical skills and I was given a lot of responsibility from the beginning.
In my spare time, I spent a lot of time with Erasmus students who I met through events. I barely went to the university as I did full hours in the hospital during the week Monday-Friday, but I got to go to the sport events and free time events that the universities and the city organised for students and the international community. I also spent my spring break traveling in Portugal with the friends I made there and we did a lot of other travels to nearby cities during the weekend.
Obviously my life was completely different there. Lot’s of friends and going out almost every night whether it was for salsa class or for tapas. When it comes to working I loved the atmosphere. In Spain, nurses get to rest a lot more, they work 4-6 days in a row and then rest the same amount of days. They were extremely happy at work and took care of each other.
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