Purnell transcultural health care

Purnell transcultural health care. Ethical, Safety, and Health Considerations When Studying or Working Abroad This final section provides some food for thought for individuals who are planning to study or practice abroad. The increasing numbers of students, faculty, clinicians, and researchers who are pursuing their interests in diverse locations has raised both ethical and practical questions about how to best prepare individuals for work and study in settings that cross national and sociocultural borders. The Working Group on Ethics Guidelines for Global Health Training (WEIGHT) has developed guidelines for institutions, trainees, and sponsors of field-based global health training on ethics and best practices (Crump, Sugarman, & the WEIGHT, 2010). The WEIGHT guidelines encourage institutions to develop structured programs among international partners, including an accounting of the costs and reciprocal benefits associated with these partnerships. Other discussion points are how long-term partnerships can mitigate possible short-term adverse consequences; the characteristics of suitable trainees and supervisors; and how participants should be prepared, including attitudes and risk reduction education. The WEIGHT recommendations include the following actions for global health trainees: • Recognize that the purpose is learning and possible service. Develop goals and expectations for the experience, and communicate this to the receiving institution or mentor. • Obtain necessary language skills and become informed about the local social-cultural, political, and historical aspects of the host community. • Demonstrate cultural competency through personal dress, respect privileged communication, be cognizant of alternate meanings of gestures and body language, and seek a more in-depth understanding of gender and traditional health beliefs in the host setting. • Meet licensing standards, visa policies, and all other program requirements. • Follow accepted international guidelines regarding the donation of medication, technology, and other supplies. • If publications are a possibility, discuss plans for authorship of publications early to determine the degree of collaboration and how it will be credited. • Be prepared to provide feedback on the training experience and follow-up information on career development. It’s helpful to assess personal attributes so that strengths can be exploited and vulnerabilities acknowledged and compensated for. Good listening skills and an awareness of nonverbal cues are very important in new settings. These will be needed along with good observational skills in general to learn about how various communities perceive the world and approach problems. The ability to weigh options and engage in informed risk-taking is important for making safe decisions while still being able to extend one’s experiential base in unfamiliar settings. Finally, the personal characteristics of patience and flexibility will be needed, along with the recognition that feelings of frustration may be cultural in origin. For this reason, an awareness of personal values and cultural assumptions is vital and will need to be reexamined over time. Venues for learning more about global nursing are the ICN journal International Nursing Review and the STTI publication Journal of Nursing Scholarship. For students and faculty wishing to study, teach, and conduct research abroad, Fulbright scholarships are an option. The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government. It is named after the late senator J. William Fulbright (1905–1995), who was the longest serving chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. There have been 300,000 past participants fulfilling its mission to increase mutual understanding between the U.S. citizens and the people of other countries. The Fogarty International Center (FIC) is the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) agency that provides grants and fellowships focused on global health training and research. The FIC mission is to