A World of Opportunity
Monday September 11, 2006
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When it comes to vacation, some nurses yearn to see sights and savor tastes in faraway locations. Some wonder what nursing and health care are like in distant lands. Culture is a major focus of nursing, and whether they travel abroad or remain on American shores, nurses are increasingly affected by and involved with multicultural issues. International nursing study tours foster understanding by taking nurses to destinations such as Mexico, Russia, and Israel to experience the culture firsthand.
Selecting a study tour
International study tours differ from each other in ways other than their destinations, so selecting one depends on a nurse's interests, resources, desire for involvement, and personal needs. Some offer a program of continuing education (CE), delivered by expert educators. Some study tours provide scholarly opportunities for participants and serve as mobile nursing conferences. All provide unique insights into the countries and cultures they visit, through sightseeing opportunities, visits to health care facilities, and networking opportunities.
The desire to visit a certain location is a major reason to select a specific study tour. Other factors to consider include: length of the tour (most are one to three weeks in length); cost (between $1,000 and $5,000); level of involvement (attendee or presenter); group size (tours range from 20 to more than 100 participants); employer support (compensated conference time, vacation/leave available); family support; and activities for non-nurse traveling companions.
While many opportunities exist for nurses who seek an international learning experience, the three programs in this article offer a sampling of study tours available.
A 'vocation vacation'
"International study tours allow nurses to 'blend vocation with vacation®,' " says Robert Hess, RN, PhD, senior vice president of continuing education for Nursing Spectrum. Hess describes the trips offered by Nursing Spectrum as "fun and fabulous" opportunities to travel safely to exotic locations within a realistic time frame, learn about nursing in a different culture, and earn contact hours.
Hess describes Nursing Spectrum's study tours as one-third CE programs, including visits to hospitals; one-third structured tour time with guided sightseeing opportunities; and one-third free time. Trip participants meet "icons of the nursing profession," the nurse-experts who travel with them and provide well-planned CE sessions, Hess says.
Hess recalls his first international study tour as a life-altering experience. In 1985, he signed up for a People to People Nurse Ambassador program to Norway, Sweden, and then-Communist Prague. Funds raised by nurses on his units at St. Clare's Hospital in Denville, N.J., along with some funding from Siemens Corporation, helped make the trip a reality. The experience sparked a love of combining learning, nursing, and world travel. Today Hess heads the world's largest providership of CE for nurses and is an advocate for nurses' expanding their educational activities through travel.
Nursing Spectrum regards study tours as an important type of CE for adult learners, Hess says. Just like those who attend regional conferences or complete Nursing Spectrum's online CE programs, nurses who participate in the study tours earn contact hours, which can be applied toward CE requirements for renewal of RN licenses or certifications.
Nursing Spectrum's 2006-2007 study tour schedule includes such destinations as the South Pacific (Australia), a cruise along the Mexican Riviera, Hong Kong and Vietnam, and Iceland, France, and Italy. Most of Nursing Spectrum's study tours offer optional sightseeing tours before and after the study tour.
Russian riverboat
Every other year since 1997, a unique nursing conference takes place on a riverboat, cruising Russia's waterways between St. Petersburg and Moscow. Site visits along the way have included regional pediatric and geriatric hospitals, an orphanage, a school of nursing, and a hospice. This study tour draws nurses from many nations and has a mission beyond leisure: to establish networks that promote scholarly international exchange and to help nursing in Russia evolve into a modern profession.
The U.S.-Russian Conference Cruise developed from the professional association between Galina Perfiljeva, dean of the nursing program at Moscow Medical Academy, and Carol Picard, RN, PhD, a professor of nursing at Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts.
Continued Russian-American communication led to small projects that morphed into larger shared endeavors. Today, two U.S. nurses - Marie J. Driever, RN, PhD, and Picard's former student Rachel DiFazio, RN, MSN, who first met Perfiljeva when she spoke at a 1991 meeting of the Massachusetts State Nurses Association - coordinate the event. It is sponsored by two Russian organizations (the Russian Nurses' Association and Novgorod State University Medical Institute Nursing Department) and three in the U.S. (Sigma Theta Tau International's Beta Psi Chapter, Providence Portland Medical Center in Oregon, and The Children's Hospital Boston).
Beginning with the 2003 conference cruise, Russian nurses were invited to submit proposals for projects they wanted to implement in their work settings to improve health care delivery and/or nursing. During the 2005 cruise, eight projects were presented by Russian nurses and all merited $500 grants, which were sponsored by individual American donors or Sigma Theta Tau chapters. The projects included such topics as decreasing the occurrence of pressure ulcers, improving teaching for elderly diabetic patients, and supporting nursing research.
Russian participants in the 2007 cruise will have another opportunity to present projects seeking funding. Other than this conference study tour, few opportunities to secure funding exist for Russian nurses.
As with traditional conferences, many of the American and Russian attendees also participate as presenters of papers and posters, facilitators of focused discussion groups, and leaders of roundtable discussions related to nursing practice, education, and research. Conference sessions are mostly held while the boat is cruising through lakes, rivers, waterways, and canals. The experience is enriched by many sightseeing opportunities at museums, palaces, and monasteries and by clinical site visits at stops along the way.
Lyn DeSilets, RN, EdD, BC, describes her experiences on the 2003 and 2005 Russia study tours as "multilayered."
"I loved the scenery, the history, and the conference, which helped me begin to understand the challenges of being a nurse in Russia," DeSilets says. "The friendships that formed and the trips themselves were wonderful."
Israel through the eyes of a nurse
"See Israel Through the Eyes of a Nurse" is the theme of the Hadassah Nurses Mission and Conference study tour. For 16 years, this annual study tour has provided nurses with an introduction to the country and cultures of Israel and to nursing practice and education there. Nursing presentations have always been part of the study tour, but in 2006 the study tour broadened to include a formal nursing conference with speakers from the United States and Israel.
One of the destinations of the study tour is Jerusalem, home of The Hebrew University and the Hadassah Medical Organization, whose hospitals, ambulatory care, and public health facilities comprise one of the largest and most modern health care systems in the Middle East. At the Hadassah Hospitals, attendees see staff from diverse religious and ethnic traditions working together to serve a multicultural population regardless of race, religion, income, or politics. The tour provides many opportunities to meet and spend time with Israeli nurses in their work settings and homes.
For example, the nurses who participated in the 2006 tour shadowed nurses in selected specialties at the Hadassah Hospital. Others met with the dean, nurse educators, and nursing students at the Henrietta Szold School of Nursing at Hadassah-Hebrew University; everyone had the opportunity to tour the world-class trauma unit. Other experiences included dining at the homes of Israeli nurses, visiting with nurses at a women's clinic in an Arab village, and meeting staff and touring a youth village.
Beyond the nursing focus, the study tour includes sightseeing visits to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Western Wall, the Old City, and Jerusalem's multicultural shopping areas. Outside Jerusalem, the study tour includes such historic places as the ancient Roman ruins of Cesarea and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum.
"If you don't know Israel, you know it only through the media," says Helaine Ohayon, RN, MPH, one of the study tour's leaders who first experienced the Hadassah Nurses Mission as a participant. "You leave with a different perception. You see how closely intertwined the lives of Jews and Arabs are and how people live and work well together on a daily basis...Participating in the [study tour] means having a fabulous trip and coming home smarter."
A lasting impression
Whether for vacation, a conference, CE credit, or service activities, international study tours leave their mark on participants. Many nurses return with different perspectives of the world, a greater understanding of nursing, new friends, and new insights about themselves. Some participants point to the trips as the inspiration for redirecting their nursing careers.
For nurses seeking a different type of getaway or more meaningful professional enrichment, a world of opportunity awaits. So, how will you spend your next vacation?
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