International Programs
Hahn School of Nursing and Health Sciences
Director: Dr. Anita Hunter, APRN, FAAN
Mission: International health involves health care provision for vulnerable populations living in other countries and Mexicans living within the border region of San Diego. Such health care involves clinical service, nursing education, and health research projects with immersion activities designed to meet the health care needs of these vulnerable populations; as well as to develop culturally competent students and faculty, and contribute to the development of a globally aware USD community.
History and Vision: The Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science has been conducting international service learning projects since 2003. Such activities have been and will continue to be framed within the context of direct patient care, conducting needs assessment research as well as intervention research to identify the efficacy of therapies and education provided.
- Cuernavaca/Miacatlan, Mexico. Two-week immersion to learn Spanish and provide health care for children in the NPH orphanage. Since 2003, 55 USD graduate nursing students and 8 USD nursing faculty have participated.
#people served since 2004: 800Kukulcan Language School
Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos Orphange
http://www.friendsoftheorphans.org and http://www.nph.org - Dominican Republic. Two-week immersion to provide health care to a community of displaced Haitian and Latin American refugees. Since 2004, 45 USD graduate nursing students and 6 USD faculty have participated.
# people served since 2004: 2400 - Mbarara, Uganda. This new project began in April, 2006 with consulting to build a children’s hospital. The long term goal is to decrease the death of children and improve the health of the community. Phase I of the hospital, a 60-bed in-patient unit with an outpatient department and administrative offices, opened on July 4th, 2009. Within 2 months, over 500 children had been seen in the clinic and more than 50 children had been admitted to the hospital.
Volunteers from the US, Canada, and Northern Ireland have served this mission. Since 2007, 36 USD graduate nursing students, 5 graduate business students, 5 undergraduate chemistry students and 4 USD faculty have participated in 5 trips to Uganda. They have completed needs assessments, water quality assessment, and have taught community health educators, nurses, and doctors about community health and caring for children in a specialty hospital.
Future USD collaborative work is expected to continue with the university’s chemistry, environmental science, and peace studies programs to address specific community health and environmental needs. Other collaborations are with the Holy Innocents Children’s Hospital NGO from Rancho Bernardo and anticipated with Rady Children’s Hospital and possibly Oakland Children’s Hospital.