Major
Nursing
Second Major
Spanish
Minor(s)
Global Health
Advisor
Cloud, Mary
Advisor Department
Nursing, College of
Advisor
Barcott- Schwartz, Donna
Advisor Department
Nursing, College of
Date
5-2019
Keywords
Nursing; global; health; leadership; travel; culture
Abstract
Nurses provide more than 80% of patient care worldwide. Unfortunately, this percentage does not correlate with the number of nurses involved in leadership roles. It’s discouraging to think that the decisions on health care, community, patient care and policy are not being made by those who provide these services and often are the patients’ most passionate advocates. This discrepancy in leadership led me to investigate what factors are at play. Through my observations of nursing practice and leadership in the countries of Jamaica, Argentina and Indonesia, I have specified some of the obstacles or lack of resources in place that interfere with nurses attaining and holding leadership positions. My travel to Jamaica was organized by a student group composed of pharmacy, nursing and physical therapy students supervised by URI faculty from each discipline. We worked closely with Mustard Seed Communities and provided care for severely impaired and disabled children in sponsored orphanages. My experience in Argentina was organized by CFHI - Children & Family Health International. With this non-profit organization I was able to shadow nurses in the largest pediatric hospital of the region. The global health trip to Indonesia was a faculty led trip organized by the College of Pharmacy. Nursing and pharmacy students from the University of Rhode Island were involved in a community outreach and teaching experience along with pharmacy students of the University of Islam in Jakarta, Indonesia. While in these countries, I worked closely with nurses and engaged in a great deal of formal and informal discussions surrounding the topics of leadership, nursing process, and the future of healthcare. One of the major similarities noted in my research was the recruitment of nurses in Argentina, Jamaica and Indonesia from other countries, like Canada and the European Union. Given the location, economy, culture and healthcare system of these three countries, differences among them were also observed. Cultural influence was a large part of the contrast among nursing leadership roles in these three countries, and the lack of structure in achieving nursing degrees was also an influencing factor. The relationship I have built with the nurses I spent time with has not ended and indeed I expect to continue to build on them. Collectively as a global village we are moving towards group strategies for increasing nursing leadership worldwide.