Making a Difference Through People and Places
Tuesday February 22, 2000
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When the time came to select a nursing school, I looked at schools in Europe and the US. During the late 1960s, most European schools were hospital-based nursing schools; US nursing schools were university-based. I chose to go to a school in the US to maximize my education and nursing potential, and I have been here ever since. To this day, though, I still wonder what nursing is like in other countries.
Nursing Spectrum recently hosted a guest "chat" with Patricia Cholewka, RN, PhD, an international healthcare consultant. She discussed how nursing and healthcare in Lithuania and Estonia is 50 to 70 years behind the times. She talked about the lack of supplies, poor sanitation, the subservience of the nurses to physicians, and the public's overall suspicion of western medicine and modern healthcare practices.
Others participating in the chat described similar situations in the countries they visited and worked in. Some nurses voiced an interest in knowing more about getting involved in international nursing activities. And so I started asking around. Here are just a few institutions:
The Global Institute for Nursing and Health (GINH) is a new organization that brings healthcare professionals together from different countries to network and share information about global health activities. GINH's chairperson, Anie Kalayjian, RN, EdD, BCETS, DDL, adjunct professor, Fordham University, New York, NY, and College of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, NY, says, "I'm excited about GINH's success, and the interest countries like Sweden, Russia, India, and Vietnam have expressed in participating and developing global health partnerships." GINH holds its meetings in New York and in participating countries. GINH then establishes alliances in the countries where their meetings are held.
Georgetown University, Washington, DC, has undergraduate and graduate programs in International Health. Open to all students, the programs focus on international socio-economic, financial, demographic, cultural and political aspects of healthcare delivery systems. According to Peg McNally, RN, MA, Outreach and Graduate Program Development coordinator, the students gain practical experience by completing internships in various countries and for organizations like the Food and Drug Administration and the Pan American World Health Organization. This summer, the university plans a program providing nurses from Bosnia and other countries in eastern Europe with an opportunity to increase their nursing skills and participate in leadership, management, and nursing education courses.
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, has teamed up with the Peace Corps to provide their returning volunteers with the opportunity to earn a nursing degree from Johns Hopkins' School of Nursing. Stella Shiber, RN, PhD, director of the Peace Corps Fellows program says, "The students have learned to persevere in difficult situations and challenges, and this provides them with an opportunity to bring home their experience and apply it to nursing and healthcare in the local community." Currently, more than 150 students have graduated from the program. According to Shiber, none of the students has been lost for academic reasons. The students are expected to provide direct service to the community as a caregiver and active member of the community. Some students actually live in the community they serve. The success of the program is predicated on the fact that the students are people who want to make a difference. After graduation, they assume jobs with organizations such as Inner City Health Departments, the Indian Health Service, or go back to countries in need.
To find out more about international nursing or get to know nurses from other countries and learn from their experiences, George Mason University is hosting the Fourth Nursing Academic International Congress (FNAIC), "International Collaboration in Nursing: The Influence of Ethics and Policy on Health and the Quality of Life." The program is scheduled for October 1-4, 2000 in Tysons Corner, VA. For more information on the FNAIC, check out the website at www.gmu.edu.
In the future, I hope to return overseas and satisfy my curiosity. In the meantime, I'll do what I can from the US and continue "chatting" online with nurses from around the world.
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