The Program

Overview

The program concerns the study of international interdisciplinary family-focused health care. It is offered to graduate nursing students seeking a Certificate or an area of special focus in International Health as part of their Master of Science in Nursing program. It includes preliminary intensive course work in language and culture (2 credits), and course work, observation, and clinical experience in three semester courses entitled Cultures, Communities, and Health Care (3 credits), Interdisciplinary Health Care Across Cultures, (3 credits), and Family Theory and Intervention Across Cultures (3 credits). A final intensive Leadership Seminar/Practicum (1 credit) will offer all students the opportunity to institute change in a home setting based on the knowledge and insights gained abroad. Five students from each partner university will receive the funds for travel overseas starting in Fall 2001, and a range of five to fifteen students per semester in each university will study at their home schools. Students, both home and abroad, will study existing health care policies; observe interdisciplinary health care teams; participate in transatlantic discussion of cases; and, as part of the leadership seminar, suggest and implement changes in health care delivery in their own country based on what they learned. Students and faculty will communicate with each other through e-mail, the World Wide Web, and audio and television conferencing where possible.