FALL 2008 / Volume 8 - Issue 1
Working Internationally Broadens Perspectives,
Nursing Practice
By Anna Riggenbach, ’08
Being a nurse in the United States and being a nurse anywhere else in the world can require different knowledge, skills and experience. Zambia, a developing country in sub-Saharan Africa, is one country that has many health care differences from the United States. Prudencia Mweemba, a student from Zambia working on her doctorate degree in nursing at Kent State, can attest to this.
“The experiences that I had (in the United States), I wouldn’t have had in Zambia,” she says. “You become more culturally sensitive. It broadened my thinking.”
Working internationally can present opportunities as well as challenges, but for Kent State University’s College of Nursing faculty and students, after providing nearly two decades of international experiences, the benefits far outweigh the difficulties.
The college provides international experiences in many ways including international exchanges; visiting scholars; a study abroad program for nursing students in Northern Ireland; and efforts to establish an off-shore degree program for nurses from the university and college.
Dr. Ruth Ludwick, professor and director of international initiatives in the College of Nursing, says international work is very rewarding.
“We gain a better understanding of our role as nurses and researchers around the world,” she says. “We can also gain professional experience, enhance our research programs and improve on what we are already doing.”
The university as a whole is looking at ways to “internationalize,” and the College of Nursing saw it as a priority to do the same, Ludwick says.
Because of technology, international work and communication is easier than ever. Ease of travel and communications tools, including e-mail and video conferencing, have allowed Kent State effortless access to nurses and nursing programs worldwide.
“Communication (allows us) to make connections with other nurses and health care systems,” Ludwick says.
Working across countries brings a great deal to the field of nursing. International diseases such as SARS and the recent case of the “tuberculosis traveler,” Andrew Speaker, highlight the need for international collaboration in nursing. In the Journal of Research in Nursing, Ludwick, in collaboration with three other College of Nursing professors, said collaborating internationally also can enhance nursing science by incorporating global issues, such as HIV/AIDS, into models to lessen risks and help in disease prevention efforts.
“It allows us a different perspective, which is necessary in order to make change,” Ludwick says.
Mweemba says there are a lot of benefits to working internationally. Studying abroad helps her in her field and has allowed her to apply different methodologies to nursing.
Mweemba says she knows of only two nurses currently working in Zambia who have obtained their doctorate degrees. Once Mweemba completes her program, she will be the third. The country does not offer a nursing doctorate program at any of its universities, making study abroad essential to career advancement and advancement of knowledge in the field.
The College of Nursing has three goals for its international work: to promote awareness of nursing’s role in international health care within the college, the greater Kent community and beyond; to create and maintain a supportive academic and cultural environment for international students and scholars; and to engage in international entrepreneurial outreach activities that promote research and education collaboration for the College of Nursing.
Mweemba had additional priorities when deciding to study abroad. She wanted to experience the culture and lifestyle of the United States. She says that when you are outside of the United States, you have an impression of what it will be like.
“You want to experience what that difference is,” she says. “You view it as a superior life and lifestyle.”
Mweemba also says she encountered many differences when she arrived in the United States. The public transportation is not as good as Zambia’s, and she wonders how U.S. citizens can manage their lives with such busy schedules.
“Zambia is more laid back, but people are very kind and willing to help in both places,” she says.
While working internationally is largely beneficial, drawbacks and challenges also emerge. Some of these include travel expense, time, communication issues and resources, but the college is always trying to balance these things, Ludwick says.
Other challenges that present themselves when working abroad are cultural differences, academic approaches and philosophical viewpoints.
Mweemba experienced other difficulties upon arriving at to Kent State. She noted a greater emphasis on color than she was expecting and says sometimes instructors treated her differently from her American counterparts.
There are many differences in being a nurse in the United States and being a nurse in Zambia, Mweemba says. For one, the United States is more individualistic and citizens are aware of their rights. In the United States, nurses will give health information directly to the patient, but in Zambia, nurses discuss patient health care with the whole family, even if the patient is an adult.
“People don’t make individual decisions,” she says. “They make family decisions.”
Mweemba also noticed that the nurse-to-patient ratio is much higher in Zambia than in the United States.
“In duty at home, we look after 50 or 60 patients,” she says versus the five or six patients nurses care for in a well-staffed U.S. healthcare facility.
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