Five upper-year York University nursing students will travel to Kumasi, Ghana in March for a three-week clinical placement - a unique opportunity to broaden their understanding and experience in global health.
The undergraduate students will take part in clinical outreach and community health programs focusing on chronic diseases and maternal health at Mansa Memorial Hospital, a small private facility in Kumasi.
Well-equipped to serve a large catchment area, the hospital includes an acute care unit, a maternity ward, as well as adult and inpatient units. Along with its strong community outreach and public health work, Mansa Memorial offers students the opportunity to rotate through wards and do clinical outreach.
Faith Root
Faith Root, a registered nurse who holds a master's degree in public health, is a PhD student and an assistant professor in York's School of Nursing in the Faculty of Health. Root is one of two faculty members who will accompany the students.
"They're very involved with trying to meet people where they are in the community. So, on Sundays, we'll go to church to do diabetes outreach. We'll go to the markets," says Root. "Students will get to see a little bit of everything and be able to engage with education from an individual and population perspective."
Health-care workers are seeing a trend of rising chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the world's low- and middle-income countries, Root says. Chronic diseases are gradually outpacing infectious causes of death such as tuberculosis, malaria and HIV as countries develop.
The nursing students will care for patients diagnosed with both infectious and chronic illness.
Also, the demographics of patients that come into care is similar to what is observed in North America; it's mainly women and children who access health care. The Ghanaians "told us the men just don't come in for care until they're really ill," Root says.
Historically, the leading cause of death from pregnancy and childbirth in Ghana was postpartum hemorrhages. However, hypertension in pregnancy is on the rise, so caring for pregnant patients with high blood pressure conditions will be a big focus for the students, Root says.
Although there are similarities in patient demographics and illnesses in the Ghana hospital, the practicum is meant to immerse students in global health scholarship. Claire Mallette, a registered nurse and director of York's School of Nursing, says "We know we need to provide these learning opportunities for our students. We know the world is globalized, and it is important to give the experience of a global health perspective."
Claire Mallette
The undergraduate practicum pilot project stems from the School's graduate level project ASCEND (Advancing Scholarship and Capacity for Emerging Nursing Doctorates), which is a partnership between York's School of Nursing and the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) based in Ho, Ghana. ASCEND supports Ghanaian nurses who come to York to pursue PhDs in nursing. Over the five or six years of its existence, the program has seen up to 10 Ghanaian nurses work on PhDs at York with the goal of returning home to teach other nurses and conduct research, says Root.
York also helps educate other nurses and midwives in Ghana. In return for having the York nursing students at Mansa Memorial, Ghanaian health officials collaborated with York to access nursing education resources, Root says.
"We offered one of the courses that I teach specifically on pregnancy to the nurses and midwives," she says. "They were given access to our online portal. We set up a separate one so they had access to slides, recorded lectures, all of the material and content."
Root followed this up with a live Zoom session every two weeks to discuss a different case the Ghanaian health officials would present. It became a community of practice with both sides learning from each other, rather than just an invitation to join the course, Root says. She hopes to organize another session this summer.
Mallette calls the partnership with Ghana a win-win for York and Ghana on many levels. She says the School of Nursing is keen to expand the practicum program; however, one of the biggest hurdles is cost to students.
"At York University, we have the most diverse population of students, many being first generation to be going to university," Mallette says. "Having to work to be able to fund their education is really limiting."
The School and its students will be seeking creative ways to fund and expand on these valuable international placements to provide more equitable opportunities for interested nursing students.
This story was originally featured in YFile, York University's community newsletter.
