Study abroad gives UC Nursing students a global perspective

“The whole reason that I came to the UC College of Nursing was for the study abroad program,” said 2023 graduate Anne Ryan. “The UC College of Nursing was going to offer me the opportunity to go to India or go to Thailand, go be a nurse globally.”

International experiences encourage students to recognize the role cultural competence plays in the care they provide and in the reduction of health disparities, abroad or at home.

The four College of Nursing trips to the U.K., Tanzania and Thailand in 2022-23 are representative of the wide options for study abroad at UC and the resurgence of international education since the pandemic. Study abroad participation has returned to over three-quarters of its pre-COVID peak.

Global opportunities integrated into students’ degree and career plans are a vital component of the University of Cincinnati’s Next Lives Here promise of experiential learning for all students, regardless of their program of study.

Nursing student Izzy Elliott took the 2023 Global Health course and its optional travel to London. The course and study abroad are open to students in any major.

“I was definitely a little bit nervous, because I'd never been out of the country. But Dr. York was really helpful,” she said.

York is the college's director of global health nursing. She teaches the Global Health class and leads study abroad.

The trip included an introduction to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a private tour of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital and a visit to the Florence Nightingale Museum. Elliott said the highlight was a six-hour walking tour through the National Gallery and London’s streets to glimpse how disease shaped the metropolis, from the Great Plague to cholera to AIDS.

York sees the London trip as a first experience for students or an option for those unable to travel for a longer stay. Since she was hired as global health nursing director in 2016, her priority has been to create immersive, hands-on field experiences in collaboration with global teaching partners.

The programs in Tanzania and Thailand are two-week trips integrated into community health courses. Students who choose those international clinical rotation options live and work with local nursing students doing their own clinical rotation in rural communities.

“I know that is only one more week, but it's so immersive. The hope is that students gain empathy and cultural knowledge and the ability to provide more culturally appropriate care, and that these qualities stay with them through their nursing career. What we want them to do is take better care of people here in the U.S.,” York said.

In Tanzania, the college collaborates with Hubert Kairuki Memorial University. York did her doctoral research in Tanzania and spent a year teaching at HKMU. UC clinical nursing Assistant Professor Jeff Trees and Clinical Instructor Deasa Dorsey co-led this year’s trip with York. 

The UC students got a chance to be more hands-on when they and the Tanzanian students designed education programs to improve community health outcomes.

“We got to meet with the leaders of the village and discuss what they thought was necessary. And then each day we got to round at the health center,” Iordache said. “It was interesting to see what was the same for us and what was different. I think there were a lot of similarities that we didn't realize.”

“We get a lot of different hospital rotations in UC’s nursing program, which are great,” said Sophia Laudenslayer. “But to be able to experience it in another country kind of breaks the barriers of what you think nursing really is.

“The biggest takeaway I have is how relational their nursing care is, focused on the person, not the task. It's not a checklist kind of nursing there,” she said. “It’s more individual to the patient, and it's very family centered. That really opened my eyes to my nursing.”

Working closely with the Tanzanian nursing students was a highlight of the trip for both Iordache and Laudenslayer.  They keep in touch through social media and said they would love to host the Tanzanian students in turn at UC.

Amiri Mmaka, an HKMU community nursing lecturer York worked with during her year at the university, said, “My students enjoyed being with the UC students and learning together in the community.”

“I'm just so thankful to Kate York and to UC International for making this trip possible,” said Laudenslayer. “Nursing is so much more, so much bigger, than what we think it is.”

Their trip concluded with a tour of HKMU and a stop in Zanzibar, where the group learned the port’s history in the slave trade and saw the century-old tortoises of Prison Island.

In addition to the HKMU program, UC’s College of Nursing collaborates with Cincinnati-based NGO Village Life Outreach in Tanzania to offer graduate nurse practitioner students global field experience. Four traveled with Village Life Outreach this spring with Robyn Stamm, clinical nursing assistant professor and director of pediatrics programs, as nursing faculty lead.

In Thailand, the college’s academic partner is the Boromarajonani College of Nursing, which runs more than thirty nursing schools across the country.

UC Nursing graduate Anne Ryan appreciated how immersive the experience was.

“I think what's unique is that it wasn't mission oriented. I wasn't there to help people—I was there to learn, myself,” said Ryan. “I was there to be put outside of my comfort zone. And there were so many times I was put outside my comfort zone!

“There's nothing more important in nursing than being culturally competent. I think the experience will serve me throughout my entire nursing career.”

The Thailand study abroad tour included an overnight train voyage to Chiang Mai and its famous temples, a trip to an elephant rescue park and a visit to a night market.

“UC International is awesome at helping us with scholarships, so I was able to afford the trip and travel to a different country for two weeks to experience my clinical hours,” said Laudenslayer (Tanzania).

“I didn't really know if global nursing was on my future ideas list,” she said. “I’m not sure what I want to do when I graduate. But, wow, now I have a lot more options. This trip expanded my ideas of what I could do with nursing and how important it is for healthcare across the globe."

Iordache (Tanzania) said, “Not all nursing schools do this. So taking advantage of every opportunity that you have I think is really important.”

“You're going to take away something more valuable than you could ever imagine,” said Schultz (Thailand).

She added, “I was able to make connections with people in the College of Nursing I didn't have before. Now I really talk to people.

“I didn't really know what to expect. All I could tell you is, it's not exactly what I expected it to be. And that's a good thing.”

York said the college’s study abroad programs are in the rebuilding stage since COVID. She wants to engage more faculty leaders. Dorsey received a mentoring grant from UC International to co-lead the Thailand group this year.

UC Nursing is currently sponsoring three HKMU faculty as doctoral students, which will help sustain the Tanzania partnership and study abroad programs long-term.

Dean Gordon Gillespie traveled with the Tanzania group to further strengthen the partnership. Smith and faculty at HKMU and BCN are also exploring collaborative research with a former UC researcher in Jordan about intimate partner violence in their four cultures.

UC Nursing has offered clinical rotations in Japan, the Dominican Republic and India. York hopes to expand partnerships in South America that will offer the same connections to local students and communities.

The first students she took abroad from UC to Tanzania in 2017 graduated in 2018. Because of COVID, they have not had the typical start to their professional lives, but York knows that their global experiences gave them contacts and confidence to do amazing things.

“I don't know if it has changed their careers,” York said. “It definitely changes their perspective and the way they practice nursing. And I think that opens up their world.”

Student interviews by Kathleen Hornstra

Featured image: UC nursing student Gabriella Iordache in Tanzania | Photo/provided