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Better than Ever
One of Hartwick’s longest-running and most powerful
J Term courses is new again. The 18th class to study
Transcultural Nursing in Jamaica
benefited when their
faculty reassessed objectives and amplified the learning.
“The result,” says Nursing Department Chair Pat Grust,
PhD, RN, “is an expanded, enriched, and more diverse
immersion experience.”
Previously, the faculty and student nurses stayed in a resort at Morant
Bay in St. Thomas Parrish and visited the rural poor at home. Now, their
base is the University of West Indies / University Hospital of West Indies,
Kingston. “The partnerships with the university, the hospital, and their
staffs provided our students with a far more comprehensive picture of
healthcare and practices in another country,” Grust explains.
Visiting Assistant Professor Maia Silber, MHA, RN, led the planning for
this year’s course. “It’s good for students to see different levels of how
an extremely poor nation functions,” she says. “Our students had never
before had the opportunity to see Jamaican hospital-based healthcare in
action. They witnessed for themselves that stressed patient care can be
basic and still be effective.”
“At the clinics and hospitals, we were able to observe the differences
between their healthcare systems and ours,” observes Mataiah Waters
’19. One example: “our use of electronic documentation while they do
everything by hand.” (“It was a real eye opener,” says Silber.)
Visiting Assistant Professor Dana Plank ’07, RN, co-led the course and took
a planning trip to Jamaica last summer with Silber and Hartwick’s Director
of Global Education and Service Learning Godlove Fonjweng. Beyond
clinical days in the hospital, they arranged site visits to the Missionaries of
the Poor facility for abandoned children and disabled adults, Jacob’s Well
residence for women, the Windward Clinic, and a sickle cell disease clinic
and lab.
For Gabrielle Urban ’19, the direct care brought powerful connections.
“I was touched to work with the pediatric patients, their parents, and
the incredible medical staff,” she says. “I connected with one patient in
particular. Her smile and strength will stay with me, and I will carry our
bond for the rest of my life.”
Thinking broadly, Urban says, “Jamaica was meaningful, heartwarming, and
essential to my learning. The experiences we shared could not be recreated
in the classroom.” Cultural activities included visiting the Bob Marley
Museum and a coffee plantation, seeing a theatre performance, joining a
church service, hiking the Dunn’s River Falls, and eating spicy local foods.
Jamaican faculty shared in the teaching, making presentations about
their nation’s history, including slavery and nursing. “This enriched our
understanding of their past,” says Silber. “It was an amazing opportunity.”
Waters agrees. “I don’t think the Jamaican culture could truly be learned in
a classroom,” she says. “Being there was a life-changing experience.”
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The Wick Magazine