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Saturday, 16 November 2013
Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to articulate the relationship between African-American nursing students and volunteering in Africa
Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to identify two unique experiences of African-American volunteers in Africa
Global volunteerism is a phenomenon that continues to grow in the United States (U.S.), with Africa being the most visited continent. Many U.S. nursing students volunteer in under-resourced countries in Africa in order to provide medical care to persons in need, and to establish health promotion and disease prevention programs. Additionally, many nursing students volunteer in order to develop their nursing skills in clinical environments that lack technological advances. Little is known about the relationship between African American nursing students, who maintain an ancestral and/or cultural connection to Africa, and their impulse to volunteer in African countries. This poster describes the unique expectations and experiences of African American nursing students from UCLA who volunteered in Uganda, East Africa and Sierra Leone, West Africa in 2010 and 2011, respectively. These experiences can inform the development of culturally-focused nursing science that is practiced both domestically and abroad.