Two nursing faculty members from Grand Valley State University will travel to Cuba to learn how the country has become a haven for health care in Central America despite limited resources.
Gayla Jewell and Maureen Ryan will travel with a delegation of U.S. health care workers to Havana, Cuba, on April 6. People to People Ambassador Programs coordinated the weeklong trip. Founded by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, People to People promotes cultural understanding through international communication.
Delegates will meet with representatives from the Cuban Ministry of Public Health, tour hospitals and clinics, and discuss Cuba's practice of incorporating alternative therapies into standard medical curriculums.
We want to see the education systems they establish for nursing programs, Jewell said. From what we understand, it's community based. They have nurse-physician teams in each region of the country. Cuba is the Mecca of health care for Central America; medical schools in Europe send their students to Cuba.
Jewell said Cuba's infant mortality rates are low, despite aging medical equipment, lack of prescription medicine, and shortages of food and clean water.
We want to see how they deliver care with the few resources that are available, Ryan said.
Ryan and Jewell hope to instill a sense of globalization among their students when they return.
We want to show our students that it's not just about nursing in west Michigan, Ryan said. There is a worldwide camaraderie of nurses, and we want them to get involved.
