Starting at the beginning.
I began this blog as a way to communicate with friends, family, colleagues what is happening during my time in Africa. Oh, I guess I should tell those of you who do not know, I leave July 10th for one year to work as a nurse educator in Tanzania. I will be working in a Peace Corps program called the “Global Health Service Partnership”. I will serve in northern Tanzania (near Lake Victoria) at aMedical Center which has a College of Nursing.
I learned of this program in 2012 when my daughter Trina who is a return Peace Corps Volunteer saw it posted and sent it to me saying “Mom you should do this”. So I explored it but said no as I was trying to finish my PhD. Each year the application deadline went by and I said no again. I took a new job 2 years ago so said no again. Finally last December I started the full application process. I then interviewed in January and waited. April 18th I received my offer and April 21st I accepted the offer.
What is the program Global Health Service Partnership?
The Global Health Partnership (GHSP) is a public-private collaboration between the Peace Corps, Seed Global Health, and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Established in 2012, the GHSP program is a novel federal initiative addressing vast shortages of health professionals in many parts of the world. It helps address critical shortages of health-care professionals globally by sending physicians and nurses to work alongside local medical and nursing faculty to build institutional capacity and help strengthen the quality of medical and nursing education. GHSP is committed to helping increase clinical care capacity and strengthen health systems in resource-limited settings by cultivating the next generation of local doctors and nurses. The program places US health professionals alongside local medical and nursing faculty counterparts to meet the teaching needs identified at each partner institution.
Where do GHSP volunteers serve?
GHSP Volunteers serve in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda. Two new countries this year were added with them being, Swaziland (nurse openings only) and Liberia.
I will serve in the College of Nursing which currently has three levels of undergraduate nursing education and is beginning a Master’s Degree in Pediatric Nursing.
What do Volunteers who are nurses do in this program?
Nurse educators serve with the GHSP as Peace Corps Response Volunteers in nursing schools and affiliated teaching health facilities in Liberia, Malawi, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Uganda. GHSP nurse educators serve primarily as visiting faculty within academic nursing institutions in order to address the critical nurse and nurse faculty shortages in resource-constrained countries. They work with the guidance of health and education ministries and in close collaboration with other partners to increase capacity and strengthen the quality and sustainability of nursing and midwifery education and clinical practice.
Key duties
- Work closely with host country faculty and staff to enhance curricula and appropriate clinical modules and, as needed, assist in the establishment of course/clinical goals, outcomes, and program evaluation methods
- Foster a model of integrated education and practice among students, and may also have the opportunity to serve as a resource for faculty by providing lectures and in-services
- Advise on evidence-based nursing practices and the latest research in specialty areas
· http://seedglobalhealth.org/about/ https://www.peacecorps.gov/apply/global-health-service-partnership
So what will I be doing?
I do have a “job description” or what is called Terms of Reference (TOR) but it is still fluid and will remain so until I am there. Guess age and experience allows me to be comfortable with an unknown future. As I know it now my role will include teaching in areas of need, assisting with development of a skills lab and clinical preceptoring, and assisting with taking new Tanzania Scope of Nursing Practice standards and matching them in the development of their curriculum theory and clinical. I hope to assist with curricular development of the Master’s level Pediatric Degree.
When?
I will leave for Washington DC July 10 for in country training and for Africa July 20th where there will be another month of training in Dar es Salaam and DoDomo which will include Swahili language training. Then by late August I will be at my assigned site.
Many of you have not heard about this because after the official offer April 18th I have been completing medical, immunization, dental, security clearances and federal passport application. Too many appointments to remember. The medical and dental instructions alone were 70 pages to read and follow. There was then finger printing and the Tanzania visa and nursing license. The details of the nursing license was more work than any of the three state nursing licenses I have ever had to complete. Finishing these requirements has been like a second job or maybe like the PhD requirements.I received my final medical clearance June 24th and my final of three pre rabies vaccination June 27th which made the position official thus why it’s a fast turnaround.
Thankful and Blessed
But I am so thankful to so many who have assisted in my journey from the application process to today in such a short time. From colleagues who agreed to be my references in the application, my Nurse Practitioner who fit me into her tight schedule and took 2.5 hours to do my physical and her physician husband who signed off on each needed document, my dentist who has gotten me in for multiple appointments, past faculty and current faculty who assisted in getting not just official transcripts from 4 nursing degrees but detailed records of courses taken and the number of theory and clinical hours for the degrees. We are talking from the 70s and 80s. I also so appreciate those colleagues who gave me some already started lectures for pediatric and health assessment so that if I teach these I have a start- without as many faculty support that I am used to having. I am thankful for the quick response of HSHS mission outreach(medical recycling program) for filling an order of supplies the nurse midwife looked at while still in Tanzania as useful for the college and I was able to pick those up so we can use for teaching purchases.
I am thankful for Deb, the nurse midwife who has already served one year and is going back again for sharing information with myself and Beka a nurse from Kansas City who also will be at our site which has decreased the anxiety of the unknown. Thankful that I was able to meet Beka in Springfield as her Grandparents live here (her grandma was a nurse in a pediatricians office who I knew) and her mom went to Lanphier High School so we share a common connection. She is taking part of a suitcase donated with the nursing school supplies donated.
Thankful I have rented my house to 2 nursing students at St. John’s. I feel like I am moving though I am really just storing my things in 2 spare bedrooms and the basement. So I’m organizing and packing my house up this week. One of these student’s family had connections with St. John’s and was able to get me the email of the HSHS Tanzania mission across Lake Victoria so I was able to email them and make a connection. They already have a connection with the hospital and medical staff where we will be taking students.
Thanking Alan for agreeing to be my maintence person while gone, and Mary for taking care of my car for a year. Then there are family, friends, neighbors, and my children to thank for just listening and supporting the decision even though you may not fully understand my motives. For those who have held and came to going away parties showing me support and encouragement.
I am thankful I was granted a leave of absence from my position at the state (a God thing in a very fast turn around time) which allows me to come back to the state to work in one year but does not guarantee my exact position.
I still have 6 days to finish work and pack up my house of 22 years and finishing a long “ to do” list. Maybe it is good that I don’t have time to really think about the change I’m about to make. I have already started journaling about this path and hope to share some meaningful, fun and rewarding times and thoughts over the next 12 months.
I am putting the link at the end of this as you may need to bookmark it as I may not always link the blog to facebook. With this position I will represent the United States so must be sensitive to what I write about my assignment placement and the people and patients I work with. I am not a tourist or a short term worker.
So I hope to keep up the blog each week. If you click on the link you can see the most current posting.
Disclaimer: This is a personal weblog. The thoughts and opinions here are those of Jennie Van Schyndel. The information does not in any way represent or reflect the opinions of the Peace Corps or Global Seed Health.
