Around the World in Four Years
Monday August 13, 2001
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Last summer George Mason University (GMU) of Fairfax, VA, was designated the secretariat of the GN for the next four years. Rita Carty, DNSc, RN, FAAN, dean and professor of GMU's College of Nursing and Health Sciences, was named the GN's secretary-general. Speaking in her new role, Carty says, "Nursing is the largest healthcare profession worldwide. The global perspective that comes with this position is extremely challenging, but it is one that George Mason University is prepared to face."
GMU is no stranger to global involvement. It has a long history of international activities dating back to 1981. GMU's proximity to Washington, DC, has contributed to its global perspective by attracting international visitors interested in how nursing education is provided in the US. What started out as small group projects with nurses from Egypt, Taiwan and Jordan, evolved into creative and innovative work worthy of international attention.
Bringing the "World" to GMU
In 1991, after working with the regional WHO office housed at the Pan-American Health Organization and through the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, also a member of the GN, GMU applied to become a collaborating center. Carty describes the application process for becoming such a center as quite rigorous. Not only do the more than 30 GN members need to approve the application but also the surgeon general of the applicant's country and WHO in Geneva. Most importantly, the president of the applying university must commit the resources and time to the network. Last year, while attending the biennial meeting in Manchester, England, Carty spoke with GMU's president and provost about GMU becoming Global Network's secretariat for the next four years. They enthusiastically endorsed the idea and said, "Bring it on home."
The Global Network's vision is stated: "Health for All Through Nursing and Midwifery Excellence." Given the Network's ambitious goals, the vision may not be as elusive as one might think. The strategic plan that was developed last year in Manchester gives structure to the goals of promoting global human resource development through advocacy and evidence-based policy activities, promoting the health of the population through community participation and partnership, and refining the communication process for efficiency and effectiveness.
Improving Communication Among Members
According to Carty, improvement of communication among GN members is critical to the work of the secretariat. For example, the GN's website is being completely revamped and made more accessible to both members and nonmembers. The GN newsletter is going to be restructured in order to provide a vehicle for peer-refereed articles by GN nurse members who are having difficulty with getting published and with their clinical work being noticed by their own countries and by the international community.
Carty and others want to see the newsletter become a publication in which nursing and midwifery research around the globe can be shared among members of the GN. Carty says, "The GN needs a vehicle to disseminate information about the collaborating centers, in particular the impact the collaborating centers are making on world health."
UTMB's School of Nursing Professor Elizabeth Anderson, RN, DrPH, FAAN, agrees with Carty in saying, "The Global Network provides a wonderful forum and mechanism for nurses across the globe to be in communication and to work together for health and for their fellow nurses. Making connections may be the single most important role our center plays - we bring together people and resources for health promotion and for healing."
Tangible Work from Strategic Goals
The emerging current and projected nursing shortage is not limited to the US or the industrialized world. It is a global crisis and one that is the focus of the first goal of the GN's strategic plan which is to promote global human resource development.
The extent of the community participation and partnership in the GN is evidenced by each center's varied activities and ongoing research. Carty says, "GMU's center is right on target with this strategic goal. We are involved with the local, regional, national and international communities." At the local level, nursing students and faculty are involved with asthma management in the school system. In the international community, GMU is involved with Nicaragua on a technical exchange, taking part in population evaluations, staffing clinics and doing research. GMU nursing students have gone to Barbados for the third year in a row, conducting longitudinal research on health practices of a group of students who were studied first while in the sixth grade and also in clinics and in the community.
Beverly McElmurry, EdD, RN, FAAN, professor and associate dean of the University of Illinois College of Nursing in Chicago, distinguishes between the work of the collaborating center and the work of the GN. As director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for International Nursing Development in Primary Health Care, McElmurry says, "Our special focus is nursing leadership in international advancement of primary health care. One particular activity that we are developing at this time is the incorporation of adolescent health content into the basic nursing curriculum, an initiative that involves schools in Jordan, Hong Kong, Korea, Philippines, South Africa and Botswana. Membership in the Global Network has facilitated dialogue with colleagues who share our interest in nursing leadership to advance global health."
Toward the goal of improving communication among Network members, Carty stresses the work of a task force charged with coming up with a database of experts. For example, in Chile where they were looking at practice standards and licensure procedures, an expert on legislative action, Mary Wakefield, PhD, RN, director of GMU's Center for Health Policy, Research, and Ethics, helped the Chilean nurses to anticipate legislative obstacles and strategize for policy changes. The database would enable the Network to respond with an expert in the field where policy help is needed. Carty says, "With the current shortage, you're going to see government to government approaches. For example, the United Kingdom is going to be importing nurses from Spain and this has many policy implications. This is the type of situation where, if asked, the Network could respond with education and consultation."
Challenge and Enrichment
According to Anderson's experience, the Global Network provides both challenge and enrichment. She says, "The challenge is that those of us who make up the Network represent a variety of cultures, languages, and philosophies. Even among English-speaking participants there can be miscommunication and confusion."
Carty is vocal about her belief that global collaborations do make a difference in the nursing profession. She says, "What has occurred is that we have been able to learn the best from each other. It's not the "good ole' Americans having all the answers because we don't. We have learned so much from our colleagues in other countries about how they do things, how things work and how the rest of the world works, and the reality of their situations. We can't just export what we're doing to other countries. We need to know about the country, its government, its economic base, its culture and its people. Then we need to know about their healthcare system and finally we need to understand how nursing fits into that system."
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