Study Abroad
A Nursing Partnership Across the Globe
For the last six years, MEDRIX has partnered with Seattle Pacific University’s School of Health Sciences and Hue University Medical College to provide an international study program for nursing students. Each year, ten senior nursing students from SPU travel toHue,Vietnamto study community health and pediatric nursing. The five-and-a-half week program provides hands-on clinical experiences in an acute care children’s hospital and in rural clinics and hospitals.
While inHue, the SPU nursing students are partnered with a Vietnamese physician who assists the students in honing their patient assessment skills. The physicians provide translation between the nursing students, patients, and other staff. When not in the hospital providing patient care, the nursing students participate in seminars led by an SPU faculty member and MEDRIX executive director, LaRelle Catherman. These seminars help students explore the similarities and differences between health care in theUSandVietnam. The students see many illnesses and injuries they would not commonly see in theUS, such as malaria and dengue fever. Even familiar diseases like cancer are seen in a different light inVietnam. Patients who would be recovering from cancer in theUSare seen in end-stages inVietnamdue to lack of available medications. While some children with congenital heart disease might be treated in Vietnam (some due to the generosity of MEDRIX donors), many are not able to afford treatment, and students see kids in a very different disease stage than would be expected in the US.
After about two weeks of intensive practice in the children’s hospital in Hue, the team travels just outside of Hue to a rural area served by a network of clinics and a rural hospital. During this time, the SPU nursing students partner with a Vietnamese nursing student. The students focus their work on assessment of the community’s health needs and education programs to meet those needs. Education has focused on hand washing, oral hygiene, waste management, and clean water. Highlights of this time often include home visits, where students experience the warm hospitality of families in need of nursing care.
Over the last six years, about 120 US and Vietnamese nursing students have benefited from this unique international experience. A number of past Vietnamese nursing students have moved on to become clinical faculty in theHueMedicalCollegenursing program. Past US participants have returned toVietnamwith MEDRIX to teach classes to current Vietnamese nursing students, faculty, and practicing nurses. Plans are already underway for the 2012 team.
