This Fall (exact dates TBD), my wife will be taking a scouting trip to London and I get to tag along. She is a professor and the director of a school of nursing. The purpose of the trip is to check a proposed Studies Abroad program that will be offered to nursing students. The goal is to compare the different approaches to healthcare - the UK uses a population centered model compared to the US who uses an individual patient model. Many of the students are in the nurse practitioner program and some will spend their career in the public health arena. She was awarded a grant to take the scouting trip.
My wife worked with a company which has designed successful Studies Abroad programs for them in the past. Her goal is to make sure the designed trip is do-able and useful. If necessary, it can be tweaked before the first group of students go either Spring or Fall 2018.
Day 1 - Depart US, arriving London early morning.
Day 2 - Meet tour guide at Heathrow, continue to tour of Windsor Castle. Continue to London, check in hotel. Have early dinner and retire for the night. We'll probably elect to stay up late enough to help with acclimation. That's how we choose to adjust.
From this point, there will be two tracks offered, one for nursing and one for public health. This is the nursing track:
Day 3 - In the morning, meet with the executives of the Florence Nightingale Foundation for an overview of their program. After lunch, visit the Tower of London and St. Paul's Cathedral, where Florence Nightingale's funeral was held.
Day 4 - This will be a working day for the students, including visits to the Royal London Hospital and St. Bartholomew's Hospital. I may or may not accompany my wife for the tours.
Day 5 - Another working day of visiting more hospitals, including St. Thomas
Day 6 - Yet another working day, with visits to the Royal College of Nursing and the Queen's Nursing Institute, which concentrates on providing in home care for patients.
Day 7 - Free day for sightseeing
Day 8 - Return home.
The Public Health track substitutes some of the hospital visits with a trip to Cambridge, a public baths museum and London's sewer system. I'm not sure how we will split our time between the two tracks. My vote would be to extend the trip and do one track one week and the other track the other week, but I doubt there are funds. We may actually divide and conquer, with me doing the public health activities while she's visiting the hospitals.
Of course, her expenses are covered. We'll only have to pay for airfare, meals and incidentals for me. We are looking to extend the departure for a few days a make a side trip to Paris.
We were in London together on a high school trip to Europe back in 1966. It will be fun to return as grown ups.