Beyond the Horizon

In Liberia in January, I had the honor of meeting with Liberian president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (at right) and her countrywoman Leymah Roberta Gbowee (left). They both won the Nobel Peace Prize last year (with Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, center) for their efforts toward peace in Liberia. Now in her second term, President Sirleaf is the first woman elected as head of a country in Africa and is world-renowned for her leadership. The founder and executive di­rector of Women Peace and Security Network Africa, Ms. Gbowee is articulate, passionate, and even more engaging than her dynamic memoir Mighty Be Our Powers. During the brutal Liberi­an civil war, she mobilized groups of women from different religions to make their presence known at peace talks, to historic success.

In light of International Women’s Day, I have been reflecting on my meetings with these courageous, pioneering women. They are exemplars of devotion to women’s health and well-being. Here at Penn Nursing, with our focus on global women’s health, we aim to inspire our students with such leadership. To that end, our new global health ambassadors program offers students their own leadership opportunities in this important area of healthcare and international efforts toward peace. Under the leadership of Assistant Dean Marjorie Muecke, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Associate Director Geralyn Grosso of the Office of Global Health Affairs, our global health ambassadors work on outreach to international students and alumni, provide curriculum support, and participate in guiding such activities as the School of Nursing Task Force on Haiti and Global Health Reflections Week.

Volunteering at an orphanage in Cordoba, Argentina, inspired Natalie Ball, Nu'14, our junior global health ambassador, to choose a nursing career. She has studied abroad in Australia, New Zealand, and Peru, focusing on environmental sustainability and outdoor leadership.

Doctoral student Lisa Hilmi, Nu'97, Gr'16, is the senior global health ambassador. She has managed responses to major humanitarian crises over the past two decades for such international organizations as AmeriCares, CARE, International Medical Corps, the Peace Corps, and the World Health Organization. Earlier in her career, she managed a refugee health and HIV/AIDS project in Rwanda for CARE in Tanzania. She has authored numerous publications on disaster preparedness.

What incredible ambassadors for nursing! They represent the scope of global engagement for our students as they aspire to make the world a healthier and safer place to live.

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.