Family Nurse Practitioner Students Travel to China

China. An opportunity to provide global health learning opportunities to advanced practice nursing students in order to foster cultural awareness and a recognition of the state of global health.

Advanced practice nursing curriculums are constantly challenged to provide opportunities for nurses to care for an increasingly diverse population. The international arena can provide the clinical resources and qualified preceptors needed to meet these curriculum outcomes. There is also opportunity to introduce the position of the graduate advanced practice nurse to countries that may not have embraced this role.

An exchange program partnership between the family nurse practitioner (FNP) program at Grand Canyon University and Changchun Medical College in Changchun, Jilin Province, China, was launched in 2005 in hopes of increasing graduate nursing global awareness and understanding.

This endeavor was led by Cheryl Roat, EdD; Anne Wendt, MSN; and me, and it provided opportunities to practice cultural responsive behaviors from a nursing platform. This is consistent with GCU’s philosophy of preparing nurses to become global leaders, effective communicators and critical thinkers.

GCU’s FNP students were mentored by Chinese medical physicians, focusing on epidemiology, disease prevention, health promotion and primary care practices. Upon completion of this international experience, the FNP students participated in focus group discussions regarding the psycho-socio-spiritual-cultural diagnoses that were uniquely present in this cross-cultural experience.

The ongoing partnership consists of a dynamic collaboration, bringing Chinese nursing students and faculty to GCU as well as providing graduate students the option of earning FNP clinical hours in a diverse and robust international setting.

Note to self: Update your passport!

If you’d like to learn more about GCU’s family nurse practitioner program, please visit our website.