A Global Health Internship for BSN Students

Tuesday, 31 July 2012: 2:20 PM

Phyllis Shanley Hansell, EdD, RN, FAAN
College of Nursing, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ

Learning Objective 1: Advance students global mulyicultural healthcare perspective through participation with international partner schools.

Learning Objective 2: Immerse BSN students in international partner schools for clinical practice with participation in faculty led research projects.

Purpose: The purpose of this project wa to implement a project to advanec the global perspective for nursing education and reseearch.

Methods: International partnership exchange opportunities were made availabele to undergraduate students on a competetive. opportunities included exchange practicum experiences with a variety of international educational  exchane opportunities that were available at a variety of international settings. Students chose from among partnership opportunties in Copenhagen, Denmark; Petoria, South Africa; Galway, Ireland; Wuhan, China; the Philippines and Macau, China. Students who met the criteria received full suppport for airfare and support for their designated project. Students selected application for the program and designated their preferred site for study. Students were then paired with faculty to participate in designated faculty led reserach projects.

Results: Five students were selected to participate in the project. Among the students selected 4 chose to selcet the experience in the Philippines and one was selected to participate in the exchange designeated for the Philippines. All studens were abe to participate in international clinical experiences and all participated in faculty led research projects. Results were presented at both conferences, the University schlarship conference, and selected professional conferences. Although the projet funding wa sonly able to compeptetively support five students, overall thirty five students have participated is international nursing experiences

Conclusion: The projet provides students with a positive global didactic and clinical nursing experience that enabled students to develop a global perspective and context that enriches their capacity to better understand and appreciate the context for providing culturally competed nursing care. All participants rated the experience highle and confirmed that this should be a requirement for all studnts in the nursing curriculum