UMSN Students Share Global Nursing Stories

Three University of Michigan School of Nursing (UMSN) students shared their experiences and advice at a recent UMSN global nursing panel discussion.

 

“We learned a lot but there’s so much more that can be done, especially with a nursing perspective,” says UMSN master’s student Belinda Fish of her trip to Kenya. Fish was part of a Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research (MICHR) Global Summer Research Program that also included students from U-M schools of medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy. The teams worked in groups of four doing community health surveys. "It was a wonderful experience and I would encourage other nursing students to go in the future,” she said.

 

UMSN senior Kelley VanMaldeghem said she appreciated “seeing a real result.” She was part of a Global Business Partnership program team that included University of Michigan medical students and West Point cadets. The volunteers traveled to Mexico to conduct a pilot study on the use of a Proctor and Gamble water purifier. “I like going to other countries to learn about their health care systems and how they take care of people. We’re so lucky in the United States. We have a lot of things, like clean water that we don’t have to worry about. It’s rewarding to help people who don’t have everything we do and the experience provides a different perspective than bedside nursing.” VanMaldeghem has also visited Haiti on a community health trip with a non-profit organization and has plans for an upcoming journey to Panama.

 

Angela Wan, a UMSN senior, agrees that global experiences provide an important part of education that can’t happen in a classroom. She traveled to Ghana and Ecuador to study health in a global context. She says her ultimate career goal is to work with health care systems to increase their environmental awareness. “Because the health care industry is so large, it has the potential to be a leader in the environmental movement and that’s where I want to be,” says Wan. She recently appeared in a UMSN video showcasing nursing students discussing their global experiences.

 

UMSN Director of Global and Community Outreach Leslie Davis, Ph.D., encourages students to find out more about global experiences and ways UMSN can help facilitate opportunities. “The Office of Global Outreach offers funding for student travel and is working with UMSN faculty to increase opportunities for global health education and engagement in the nursing curriculum at all levels,” says Dr. Davis.

 

UMSN students can visit the Global Nursing C-Tools site if they are interested in learning more about international opportunities (valid UM I.D. required to log in).