Cleveland Faculty Travel to Africa to Advance Educational Opportunities for Nurses

“Care is universal. The heart of nursing crosses all continents,” said Adele Webb, PhD, RN, DPNAP, FAAN, reflecting on the goals of the World Health Organization (WHO).

After years of working with the WHO, Dr. Webb, Chamberlain’s Cleveland campus president, spearheaded a partnership in 2015 between the organization and Chamberlain in an effort to create change in nursing education. 

They banded together on a mission to equip foreign nurses to improve with the information and tools necessary to build their own healthcare systems and advance nursing practice through continued education. One region in particular need was the Seychelles, a cluster of islands off the African coast that does not currently have a university-level nursing program.

The WHO and Chamberlain faculty have made three trips to the Seychelles already this year. During these trips, they assessed nurses’ educational needs at Seychelles Hospital and mapped out a strategy for improving regional healthcare access and treatment for diseases like HIV and tuberculosis.

A group of Chamberlain instructors who just returned from the latest trip were responsible for implementing the most critical element of the strategy: providing advanced education access to Seychelles nurse educators. Chamberlain faculty equipped them with tools for addressing language barriers and understanding third-party research in APA style formatting – both critical to seamless facilitation of courses in Chamberlain’s advanced degree program.

Today, many of the nurses from Seychelles Hospital are interested in enrolling in Chamberlain’s Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree program and look forward to benefiting from the hands-on, interactive learning approach it offers. Ultimately, the Seychelles Hospital will be equipped to seamlessly apply their education within everyday nursing practice to advance healthcare protocols, heighten awareness of treatment modalities, develop their own research and educate future nurses in the areas they serve. 

“Our goal is to make long-term, positive changes in the Seychelles healthcare community by providing its nurses with the educational resources they desperately need,” said Brenda Spear, MSN, RN, CNS, NEA-BC, dean of academics at Chamberlain’s Cleveland campus. “We want to instill stability and structure in their nursing education system that will allow them to foster their own paths to advanced education.”

Through their partnership with the WHO, Chamberlain faculty members are developing a network of advanced practitioners who will foster a community of care abroad. As a result, the Seychelles nursing faculty will have the tools to make a lasting difference for their students and patients. Dr. Webb and her team at Chamberlain will continue to meet with the WHO regional director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, to discuss implementing this program in other underdeveloped countries and work toward creating a global culture of health.

Read more about Chamberlain nurses building communities of care in places around the globe!

By Molly Mattison