Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Dumela Ma!

This is a very important week for our school, envisioned and implemented by our own Office of Global Affairs, under the leadership of Dr. Marjorie Muecke and Geralyn Grosso.

Global Health Reflections Week is full of international visitors, dialogues about healthcare in the world, and a reminder of our moral commitment to partnerships, the well-being of people, and peace. We are privileged to have some honored guests presenting and challenging us. Among them is Dr. Motshedisi Sabone, the head of the School of Nursing at the University of Botswana, hence the greeting dumela ma! Her school is our gracious partner in our community health nursing education and faculty research projects there.

Nearly 40 Penn Nursing undergraduates have had clinical experiences in community nursing in Botswana under the auspices of the University of Botswana School of Nursing and as part of the Botswana-UPenn Partnership, which marks its 10th anniversary this year.

Our undergraduate students have worked in clinics, communities, daycare centers, and orphanages, and two of our doctoral students have worked on research projects in Botswana.

There is no doubt that our nursing students are the ones who benefit, learning about cultural norms, about being resourceful, and about the international language of nursing.

They tell us that this program is one of the reasons they come to Penn Nursing and that it gives them preparation for 21st century nursing and its emphasis on cultural competence.

In a blog entry about their experience, several students shared this: “. . . . we can all learn from . . . our observations of Botswana nurses and value the cross-cultural ability of a nurse to recognize and respond to a patient’s physical, emotional, or spiritual needs to maximize quality of life at unique moments in time.”

In addition, four of our faculty have had the opportunity for collaborations on projects at the University of Botswana:
  • Dr. Charlene Compher is the P.I. of a multidisciplinary team from the University of Botswana studying the prevalence of adolescent obesity;
  • Dr. Loretta Sweet Jemmott works on the prevention of adolescent HIV/AIDS;
  • Dr. Mary Ersek conducted a national workshop on palliative care which led to an article co-authored by faculty here and at the University of Botswana School of Nursing;
  • And Dr. Victoria Rich goes annually with two of her expert clinical nurses to consult on nursing leadership and hospital management at Princess Marina Hospital.
These collaborations are exemplars of the global healthcare partnerships of the future – and they are happening right now, at Penn Nursing.

With the reflection and discussion of our global commitment and partnerships, this week is also sprinkled with international food and entertainment. It is all these experiences that make us a well-informed, dynamic, and futuristic school always ready for care that changes the world.

Friday, February 10, 2012

We Are Game

When Einstein called games “the most elevated form of investigation,” he could not have predicted the influence and reach of games today. The 21st century role of games in community-building and problem-solving is thoughtfully presented in Jane McGonigal’s Reality Is Broken, which inspired the University of Pennsylvania’s Year of Games: Body & Mind. As part of this theme, Penn Nursing launched the Game Solutions for Healthcare initiative, and I am thrilled that this exciting endeavor has hit its stride.

In January, 25 teams of student entrepreneurs went head-to-head making an “elevator pitch” – the chance to tell judges in 90 seconds about their business models -- in PennVention’s Startup Challenge, hosted at Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. The winning project, called “Body Wars,” was initially developed in a community health nursing course taught by Associate Dean of Nursing Eileen Sullivan-Marx, PhD, CRNP. The game’s developers are Penn Nursing Master’s students Antonette Shaw, BSN’11, Mackenzie Mapes, BSN’11, and Kristen van der Veen, BSN’11, who won $500 in the competition. “Body Wars” is a highly interactive game using seminars, trivia, and physical activities to teach teenagers about anatomy and the effects of drugs, alcohol, and sexually transmitted diseases on the body. In April, the project will vie for an award in our School’s Game Solutions for Healthcare competition.

Professor Nancy Hanrahan, PhD, RN, who is leading our Game Solutions for Healthcare initiative, has been tapped by iMedicalApps as its first nurse reviewer. An independent online medical publication, iMedicalApps offers commentary and reviews from physicians and medical students – and now, wisely, a nurse -- on mobile medical technology and applications. iMedicalApps is widely recognized as a leader in the field of mobile health.

On April 19, we will hold an inaugural symposium and networking event to close the first year of Game Solutions for Healthcare. From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. here in Fagin Hall, the event will include a major speaker on game innovations, presentations from our games competitors, announcements of competition winners, and the opportunity to network with other game and app innovators.

At Penn Nursing, we continue to develop health-oriented games and apps and we are exploring ways to integrate them in our teaching, research, and clinical care. I welcome your ideas as we continue our exploration.