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The Connell School of Nursing’s Global Summer University has added a new partner: Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) in Santiago, considered a premier university in South America.
Launched in 2010, the Global Summer University is an academic partnership between CSON and two Swiss universities: Haute école de santé Vaud (HESAV) and LaSource. The universities offer a three-credit, four-week global health course held alternately at Boston College and in Lausanne, Switzerland. The course is taught by faculty from CSON, HESAV and LaSource and is open to students from these universities. Topics range from the commonalities and differences in health care systems and policies to public health, especially among underserved populations.
Four Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) students, the school’s director of international programs and director of undergraduate programs traveled to BC last summer where they joined eight BC students and 16 Swiss students in the course “Global Health Care: Meeting Challenges and Making Connections.” PUC will host the program in January 2016.
Clinical Associate Professor Colleen Simonelli, who coordinates the program, pointed to the opportunities that will result from the addition of the Chilean university. “This will help BC foster faculty exchanges and interdisciplinary research; and PUC is interested in fostering faculty development and building research partnerships.”
Earlier this month, Simonelli and Associate Dean for Research Barbara Wolfe traveled to PUC to firm up plans for the course’s debut in Chile next year, and to explore ways the faculty from both institutions can work together.
The BC representatives heard talks from several PUC faculty members. Wolfe and Simonelli offered advice on how PUC might fulfill their goal of having their peer-reviewed journal gain recognition from an accreditation group.
The BC contingent also toured private and public hospitals and a community health center. Simonelli noted that the Chilean health care system is faced with a lack of resources and staffing that affects everything from infection control to patient care. In the ICU, where the most critical patients are, one nurse was responsible for six patients. In the US, the nurse-patient ratio for the most critical patients is one to one. In the Chilean health center, there was no doctor present and the nurse in charge was not a nurse practitioner, which Simonelli said limited her ability to completely care for the patients.
“The advanced practice nurse role does not exist there,” noted Simonelli, adding that there is a severe lack of doctoral-level nurses in leadership and teaching roles in Chile. It is an area where she thinks BC can offer avenues for further educational advancement.
Despite some shortcomings, the Chilean health care system offered lessons for the Americans, said Simonelli. Part of her trip included a visit with faith healers, who are held in high esteem among the indigenous people. In Chile, the faith healers work from huts set up near the health centers and hospitals. They would perform a faith healing ceremony and then refer the patients to the medical facilities. “The complementary care in Chile is leagues ahead of where the US is, with our battles between east and west [medicine] and our lack of consideration of cultural beliefs,” she said.
According to Simonelli, both CSON and PUC are hoping this new relationship might evolve to include a community health semester abroad for students from both institutions.
CSON sophomore Kelly Powers traveled to Chile with Simonelli and Wolfe. She was one of the students enrolled in the global health care course last summer and in June will travel to Switzerland along with 15 other BC students and five CSON faculty members to partake in the course offered in that country.
“I learned about Chilean and Swiss health care both in and out of the classroom through field trips to local health care centers and conversations with my peers,” said Powers. “My stay with a host family was a critical part of my experience because I learned more about Chilean culture and habits through becoming part of a family. Participating in this program made me more conscious of the influence different cultures have on health care practices both in and out of hospitals.
“I think international experiences with other future nurses not only show students the global importance and need for nurses but also inspires students as they learn about new cultures, practices, and ideas.”