Hi Reader! My name is Sidra Zammam. I’m currently a rising Junior at Pitt majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Arabic. I’m studying abroad this summer in London for two whole months (June-August)! I’m on the pre-med track, which is why when I was researching summers abroad this past fall, I didn’t want to let an opportunity like this pass me by.

My study abroad experience is an internship at King’s College Hospital, one of the biggest trauma centers in the NHS. The NHS is England’s National Healthcare system set in place by the UK government, and it is largely free. My specific placement is concerned with electronic job planning for Nursing. E-job planning is supposed to better understand staffing capacity in the hospital and try to align it with patient and hospital need. One of the goals of job planning is to standardize patient care across all of the NHS hospitals, because hospitals don’t have the same code of conduct and they don’t follows each other’s guidelines.

What happened to: Teamwork makes the Dreamwork?

Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out and get back to you.

My first week in London was awesome. I had never been to the UK before this, but I have been perfecting my British accent for a while. What I didn’t know? Everyone has a different accent in the UK. I gave up. No one is going to think I’m a local. They can tell just by looking at me, because no one wears jeans here. This week I went to a Sunday flower market, ate a strawberry allegedly from the King’s own garden, and saw Harry Styles at Wembley Stadium with my cousin. What amazed me the most was the architecture and all of the history embedded into London itself. What concerned me was the lack of air conditioning.

My favorite part of London? The tube. Pittsburgh has many things: major highways, bridges, rivers, and more. However, we don’t have an underground transportation system. I couldn’t tell you why I’m so tickled to go on the tube every day. It’s simply enigmatic, a little stinky, and very fast.

Another reason I chose to come here was to become more enriched as a person. Living abroad is about opening yourself up to new experiences. So far, its helping me understand more about how compassion is key; Our experiences help us become a better version of ourself. In the future, I want to be more empathetic, understanding, and accepting of all. As a society, we cannot be a melting pot if we never try to consider any other way of life other than our own, if we never broaden our horizons by learning from others.

This opportunity is truly everything to me. I want to be in healthcare not only because I love to learn about the human body the most, but because I want our healthcare system to change. We can’t sit around waiting for someone else to start the change we want to see. Healthcare should be more preventative, not just a safety net for after you’ve already started falling. Our government should realize food isn’t just fuel, it’s medicine. Most importantly, medicine should be affordable for everyone. The truth is, we all need to work together a little more in order to start this reform. I’m trying to keep this in mind while I see what the NHS has to offer.

Thank you so much for reading!