The Nuts and Bolts of Developing a Global Health Course

Tuesday, 31 October 2017: 9:20 AM

Sharon K. Byrne, DrNP, APN, NP-C, AOCNP, CNE
School of Nursing, Health, and Exercise Science, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ, USA

Introduction: Developing and facilitating a global health course within the nursing curriculum can be a challenge. The nuts and bolts of developing a syllabus and course outline along with the steps in course approval to inception are discussed. Emphasis will be placed on highlighting how the mobility of society and communication has impacted health care globally and has led to culturally diverse patient populations both domestically and abroad. This necessitates that nursing students be exposed to ethical reasoning, philosophical views related to the human right to health and international humanitarian health law in order to understand the variety of issues that can affect the delivery of healthcare services within a global perspective.

Design: Tips for syllabus and course outline construction are shared on step-by-step basis. Course objectives require students to engage in the study from both a nursing and broader liberal learning perspective. Teaching/learning strategies such as reading assignments, class discussions/discussion boards, reflective written assignments and web links provide exposure to selected topics related to global health from a diverse range of cultures and communities so that students can understand how experiences across cultural and social boundaries challenge cultural-centric preconceptions about nursing and/or healthcare delivery. The student will also examine the role of key stakeholders i.e. nursing’s or other health related providers in a number of global setting including scope and regulation of practice and be able to contrast and compare it to that found in the U.S. Students will discuss and reflect on a number of complex healthcare issues through case studies and a study abroad or community immersion experience in assist in the delivery of primary care services. The reflective approach through journaling, debriefing and writing assignments is used as one form of evaluating students.

Conclusion: Lessons learned from course development and delivery has occurred through informal didactic related discussion, field experience and the formal course evaluation processes. A discussion of these lessons can assist other academic nursing programs interested in developing and offering a global health course within their respective curriculum.