Nursing Builds Stronger Ties with Nicaragua

For the past 16 years, junior and senior nursing students have been going to Nicaragua for field experiences during their spring break, where they gain invaluable learning opportunities, including trans-cultural nursing. Last month, 15 junior, senior and Second-Degree program students traveled to Nicaragua, accompanied by nursing faculty members Lea Cunningham and Drs. Leni Resick, Yvonne Weideman and Rebecca Kronk.

Since 1995, the School of Nursing has been steadily strengthening ties with a Nicaraguan nursing school, resulting in a number of important benefits for the faculty and students of both schools, as well as improvements in health and disease prevention in Nicaragua.

The group that visited Nicaragua in March was one of the largest to make the journey. The students had a 10-day field experience that teamed them with peers from UPOLI (Universidad Politecnica de Nicaragua) in Managua and exposed them to nursing procedures in a variety of health care settings, including vaccinating infants in an urgent care facility and conducting interviews and health screenings of older adults at a neighborhood clinic.

The relationship between the schools of nursing at UPOLI and Duquesne began 18 years ago when nursing faculty members Dr. Joan Such Lockhart and Cunningham worked with UPOLI to help transform its three-year nursing curriculum into a baccalaureate program.

In 1998, the Nicaraguan Health Ministry began to stress the importance of women’s health throughout the life cycle, expanding beyond the previous concentration solely on obstetrics. This focus produced curricular shortcomings in Nicaraguan nursing schools so profound that, according to Cunningham, learning was utterly lacking about cervical and breast cancer—paramount health issues for women throughout the world.

To address those shortcomings, UPOLI brought together all seven of the nursing schools in Nicaragua to confer with members of the Duquesne nursing faculty, including Lockhart, Cunningham and Resick, who now views the gathering at UPOLI as a harbinger of important changes for Nicaraguan nurses in health and disease prevention. The nursing faculty helped the Nicaraguan school organize a screening and treatment program utilizing a train-the-trainer approach.

Building on that program’s success, the UPOLI nursing faculty began identifying new roles for nurses, particularly roles for the advanced practice nurse, and the relationship with Duquesne deepened. According to Cunningham, the Nicaraguan faculty recognizes the strengths in Duquesne’s faculty and nursing curriculum, and has consequently asked for assistance in specific areas, such as establishing a center to help older adults live healthy and independently, similar to Duquesne’s Nurse Managed Wellness Center.

In addition, the deepening liaison between the two schools has enabled members of the Duquesne nursing faculty to conduct collaborative research projects with members of the UPOLI nursing faculty. As new initiatives are being explored and established, and existing ties are strengthened, an active digital conversation is currently taking place among faculty and students of both schools, using social media, email and a new Blackboard community site, administered by Duquesne.