By Debra Wood, RN, contributor
The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing has embarked on an international initiative to improve health outcomes in rural India by sending nurses to Tamil Nadu to pilot the functionality and viability of nurse-managed Rural Micro Health Centres.
“We want our students to have a global understanding of health of the world and this gives us an opportunity for our students to have opportunities abroad, to see innovation in practice and for our researchers to study areas of interest to them in other parts of the world,” said Eileen Sullivan-Marx, RN, Ph.D., FAAN, associate dean for practice and community affairs at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.
The long-term project, in partnership with India’s IKP Centre for Technologies in Public Health (ICTPH), involves collaborating to develop advanced practice nursing education in India, which does not currently exist; completing health surveys to determine needs; and other research pursuits.
India has had some success improving eye health by training women in villages to assess for eye conditions using telemedicine to link them with ophthalmologists. ICTPH thought similar programs could improve public health and lower the incidence of chronic problems such as diabetes, hypertension and injuries.
Students in Penn’s master of public health and dental programs may participate, as well.
“Nursing is not the total answer,” Sullivan-Marx said.
The first year, the team will concentrate on planning. In the future, Sullivan-Marx hopes Indian nurses can attend Penn nurse practitioner programs and Penn students can travel to India to provide care and conduct research.
A nurse practitioner, hired by Penn, will begin serving Indian communities this summer. Indian officials are conducting in-depth community health assessments—going household to household asking about diet, work practices, health problems and sleep patterns—and gathering other data.
Michelle Holshue, a recent graduate of Penn, will be one of the first nurses to make the trek to India. She planned to leave in June and will serve as a nurse intern, working with physicians and information technology professionals to set up the clinics and test different telemedicine technologies. Holshue will also review the training materials used to teach Indian healthcare workers.
“I’ve always had an interest in international health and working in resource-poor areas,” said Holshue, who also holds a bachelor’s degree in international health. “The connection with this project started because I wrote my senior inquiry project, like a senior thesis, about nursing workforce issues in India.”
Holshue explained that many young Indian women train as nurses because the field offers the opportunity to travel and to leave the country to work in the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries.
Sullivan-Marx added that limited opportunities exist in India for bacheloreate-prepared nurses to function professionally in modern healthcare settings, which drives them to leave and results in a “brain drain.”
“I want to look at what happens in the rural areas when these nurses, who are the primary caregivers, leave,” Holshue said. “I want to understand some of the reasons why they are leaving and the workforce issues they face.”
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