CONHI students get global view of health care
For a group of University of Texas at Arlington graduate nursing students, spring break 2024 was a week to remember, as flip-flops and sunscreen were traded for passports and notebooks.
Twenty-one graduate nursing students from the College of Nursing and Health Innovation (CONHI) spent their spring break traveling through Italy learning about health care and professional nursing from an international perspective. The group made stops in Rome, Florence and Pisa.
Led by multiple CONHI faculty members, including Ann Eckhardt, chair of graduate nursing programs, and Clinical Assistant Professors Keri Draganic and Tamara Eades, the students embarked on a journey of perspective.
“This unique short-term travel abroad opportunity allowed students to immerse themselves into Italian culture while learning about their national health system, Servizio Santario Nazionale, and investigating ancient Roman medical and health practices, religious aspects of medicine, human anatomy and the history of medicine,” Draganic said.
Lindsey McDavid, a UTA master’s student in nursing education, echoed the importance of attaining a global perspective of health education.
“Experiencing these cultures firsthand and learning about each country's health care system from local health care professionals has been invaluable for my current and future nursing practice,” McDavid said. “I have developed cultural competence in a way that I cannot learn from a book or lecture.”
Students’ newfound global perspective will ultimately improve patient outcomes here at home.
“Through immersion activities and opportunities to meet with health care professionals in other countries, students gain valuable insight into health care delivery and cultural differences,” Eckhardt said. “Texas is a majority-minority state, and the United States will be a majority-minority nation within the next 20 years. This demographic shift highlights the importance of cultural understanding.”
The international trip was the fourth short-term travel abroad experience organized for CONHI graduate nursing students. Previous destinations included London, Switzerland and France.
-By Sam Galindo, College of Nursing and Health Innovation