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Study Abroad Gives A Global Perspective on Nursing
Undergraduate students expand their horizons in Thailand, Tanzania and the United Kingdom.
Sophia Laudenslayer chose to travel 8,000 miles from home to Tanzania with UC College of Nursing faculty and classmates to complete her community clinical requirement. In the end, she got much more than course credit.
“Nursing is so much more, so much bigger than we think it is,” Laudenslayer says. “We get a lot of different hospital rotations in UC’s nursing program, which are great, but to be able to experience it in another country kind of breaks the barriers of what you think nursing really is.”
Laudenslayer is among 54 Bachelor of Science in Nursing students who traveled abroad with the college during the 2022–23 school year. Others spent one or two weeks in the U.K. and Thailand. Developed and delivered by faculty specially for UC’s nursing students, these trips deepen resilience, empathy and cultural responsiveness — skills critical for the next generation of nurses, tasked with providing more complex care and advancing health equity.
The driver of these efforts, Kate York, PhD, FNP, RN, assistant professor and director of Global Health Nursing for the college, has worked since 2016 to create impactful learning experiences abroad by building partnerships with nursing instructors and institutions across the globe. Unlike mission trips, the college’s study abroad program emphasizes learning alongside health providers and nursing students in other countries.
“We’re not traveling to places to help. We’re there to learn,” York says. The trips align with and enhance undergraduate coursework. York’s Global Health course includes an optional weeklong trip to London, where students learn how medicine, hygiene and patient care have evolved throughout history in other parts of the world. Experiences in Thailand and Tanzania are two weeks and provide the 84 hours of hands-on learning required for the program’s Population, Public and Community Health Nursing course. With pandemic travel restrictions in the rearview mirror, York looks to expand study abroad opportunities to include more faculty leaders, international partners in South America and scholarship funding to open trips to more students.
“While we are able to offer some financial support to students through UC International’s program grants, additional collegefunded scholarships would open opportunities to many more students,” York says. “This should be an equitable opportunity that’s available to everyone.”
For those students who have studied abroad, the experience leaves a lasting mark. Take it from alumna Anne Ryan, who traveled to Thailand. “There’s nothing more important in nursing than being culturally aware. I think the experience will serve me throughout my entire nursing career,” she says.
The Tanzania Experience
York did her doctoral research in Tanzania and later taught at Hubert Kairuki Memorial University (HKMU) in Dar es Salaam. Because of her solid local connections, the college now collaborates with HKMU to create a multicultural learning experience for students.
To go on this and other international clinical trips, students must apply through UC International and complete an interview with faculty that assesses students’ expectations for the trip, how they deal with uncomfortable or stressful situations and other personality traits. Selected third-year students complete a semester-long independent study course before the trip to become more familiar with the country and prepare for immersing themselves in their rural destination, which could push them beyond their comfort zone.
As students are divided into two groups to work in separate rural locations, York recruits UC Nursing faculty to join the trips and offer additional support. Faculty members Jeff Trees, DNP, RN; Deasa Dorsey, RN; and Interim Dean Gordon Gillespie, PhD, DNP, RN, FAAN, traveled with York this summer.
“The students and I were humbled by our experiences within the Tanzanian community,” Gillespie says. “I was most impressed with the students’ ability to adapt to a new environment, trying new foods and quickly learning new words in Swahili.”
The study abroad experience is eye-opening for many.
“Some of us got to see a hysterectomy there,” says Gabriella Iordache, who went on the Tanzania trip this past May. “The power went out twice and the backup generator had to kick on. Just seeing how calm everyone was and how normal it was to deal with that and still successfully do surgery — one of the big takeaways for me was that you can do so much with limited resources.”
UC students got a chance to be more hands-on when they and the Tanzanian students designed education programs to improve community health outcomes.
“We met with the leaders of the village and discussed what they thought was necessary, and then each day we got to round at the health center,” Iordache says. “It was interesting to see what was the same for us and what was different. I think there were a lot of similarities that we didn’t realize.”
Laudenslayer adds, “The biggest takeaway I have is how relational their nursing care is, focused on the person, not the task. It’s not a checklist kind of nursing there; it’s more individual to the patient and very family centered. That really opened my eyes to my nursing.”
Their trip concluded with a tour of HKMU and a stop in Zanzibar, where the group learned the port’s history in the slave trade and saw the centuryold tortoises of Prison Island. Working closely with the Tanzanian nursing students was a highlight of the trip for both Iordache and Laudenslayer. They keep in touch through social media and said they would love to host the Tanzanian students in turn at UC.
The Thailand Experience
In Thailand, the college’s academic partner is the Boromarajonani College of Nursing (BCN).
Study abroad in Thailand caps the Population, Public and Community Health Nursing course offered during fall semester of students’ fourth year. Over the 2022 winter break, York, Trees and Carolyn Smith, associate dean for research and director of the college’s PhD and graduate Occupational Health Nursing programs, led two groups to rural communities north of Bangkok, where BCN faculty members and proud UC College of Nursing PhD alumni teach.
“The program is very similar to Tanzania,” York says. “Our students work with the Thai students out in the communities. They’re partnered up and do home visits with elderly people and people at risk. They live in the dormitories, collaborate on health education programs and participate in cultural exchange with the Thai students.”
Alumna Anna Schultz, BSN ’23, went to Thailand this past May.
“It was awesome to be partnered with the Thai students,” she says. “It was definitely hard with the language barrier, but we made it work. When we weren’t in school, we were hanging out, we played volleyball, they would take us to markets to pick up food for dinner.”
She says she was impressed by the kindness and humility the Thai nursing students showed in providing care and by the broader role that nurses have in Thailand than in the U.S. health care system.
Ryan appreciated how immersive the experience was.
“I think what’s unique is that the trip wasn’t mission oriented. I wasn’t there to help people — I was there to learn myself,” she says. “I was there to be put outside of my comfort zone, and there were so many times I was put outside my comfort zone!”
The Thailand study abroad tour included an overnight train voyage to Chiang Mai and its famous temples, a trip to an elephant rescue park and a visit to a night market.
Help Us Grow The Program
Experiences such as the ones in this story impact our students beyond their two-week immersion — they shape who they become as practicing nurses. Ideally, such meaningful experiences should be equitably available to students regardless of their financial situation.
If you would like to support our program so our trips are accessible to more students, please contact Matt Pearce, assistant vice president of development, at pearcemt@foundation.uc.edu.
