Fall 2007
Vol. 14/ No. 2

There are universities and colleges that are recognized worldwide and Chancellor Brady Deaton wants Mizzou to be on the tips of international and U.S. tongues.

So he laid out a bold vision for the MU International Center (IC) to institute. Based on the fact that Mizzou has one of the nation's longest running international endeavors, the IC moved from a highly decentralized concept to a new hybrid collaborative endeavor in 2006.

Just as the campus is gaining international recognition, so is the School. Researchers and clinical faculty alike are traveling worldwide and they are attracting and educating students on how to become a part of this global nursing community.

No one understands how to integrate students better than Alice Kuehn, associate nursing professor emeritus and project director of the North American Mobility in Higher Education. She has spent the last five years pushing the northern and southern borders of the United States so they don't exist among nurses. She has taken Mizzou nurses to Mexico and Canada, while also familiarizing those
foreign nursing students with the U.S. health-care profession.

“I believe this project is helping the school write a new chapter in international outreach as well as provide a first-time opportunity for Mizzou students and faculty to immerse in the language, culture and values held in each country,” Kuehn says.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, this project is an international collaboration among six schools/colleges of nursing located in Canada, Mexico and the United States; thus creating a greater understanding of cultural differences in nursing education and care throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

Each nursing program provides students with a shared internet course focusing on cultural awareness, role and scope of nursing practice, health care systems and health care beliefs and values held in each country before heading to those countries for an international exchange. Students live with host families as they participate in cultural and clinical activities.

Kuehn's project has added to the increased study abroad participation by MU students. According to the MU International Program's annual report, students being educated overseas increased by 6 percent with approximately 829 MU students studying abroad in the past year. And despite the 9/11 tragedy, that percentage increased 58 percent in the last five years. The IC also reports that international student enrollment increased 3.2 percent.

Dasril is one of those international students. He was born, raised and educated in Indonesia and left his country only to further his management career by obtaining his MBA in the United States.

“I went online to find a college or university that was located in a place that had reasonable living costs,” he says. “I also wanted someplace that seemed to have nice people and an environment that was conducive to international students.”

That's when he discovered Columbia College. After obtaining his Visa, the 27-year-old student headed to America and Columbia, Mo., and a vastly different life.

“Before I came to the United States I had only seen snow in the movies and I remember wishing that I could touch it and taste it. Of course now I could do without it.”

“For the first six months I felt as I would wither away if I didn't eat rice every day,” he laughs. “I also remember the first time I saw snow. It was October of 1997 and the city got about three inches. It was fabulous. Before I came to the United States I had only seen snow in the movies and I remember wishing that I could touch it and taste it. Of course now I could do without it.”

Only having one name has also created obstacles for Dasril. The fourth of five children, his parents gave one name to three of the children (the other two have two and three names). In West Sumatra of Indonesia, it is assumed that the children will take their mother's last name and it is not placed on their birth certificates. So when he applied for his Visa, the U.S. Customs Office place FNU in the space for a first name. FNU stands for First Name Unknown, but that didn't stop his friends and instructors from calling him Fnu anyway.

When heading to college in Indonesia , Dasril followed his friends into the engineering profession, although he always entertained the thought going into health-care. Even with a successful career as an industrial engineer for the Mattel Corp. he wasn't truly happy. “I couldn't shake the feeling that I had chosen the wrong career,” Dasril says.

Although he was aware of the Columbia College 's associate degree in nursing, he didn't sway from his chosen educational path until Indonesia 's economy crashed right after he graduated. This abruptly changed his future plans.

Internally and externally, Dasril struggled to find a rewarding and satisfying career. He's not sure if he stumbled across the School's Accelerated BSN degree on-line or if a family member gave him the idea, but either way he applied, was accepted and is now graduating as a nurse.

“Now that I've been exposed to the nursing profession I feel fulfilled. I'm looking forward to working in the CICU at University Hospital after I graduate in August,” Dasril says. “No matter how long it takes, it is important to find a career you love.”

Dasril's profile

Accelerated nursing student, Ozan Senli agrees with his classmate about finding a career that you are passionate about.

Senli arrived in Monterey, Ca., from Izmir, Turkey in 1990 with a backpack, a word of English and a few dollars in his pocket. Much like Arnold Schwarzenegger muses Senli, a self-professed movie buff since childhood.

“I had always contemplated a career in health care, but I didn't think I was brave enough to tackle it,” Senli says. “My wife is a nurse and she would come home talking about her day on the peds hematology/oncology floor and I would be sad with her. However, one day she took me to work and I met her patients and their families. That's when I went beyond being aware of the demands placed on nurses to a place of wanting to help them.”

Once this highly intellectual and driven individual decided to pursue a nursing career, he went on-line to find a program that would meet his needs. He found the School, was impressed with the educational requirements and the School's rankings, applied, and then he and his wife, Melissa packed their bags in Fresno, Ca., and headed back to the Mid West.

The couple had spent four years living in Wichita, Kansas while Senli was in the U.S. Air Force. It was also here that he received his bachelor's degree in human resources and business quality management from Southwestern University.

However, this degree and the jobs that came with it didn't fill his soul. Viewing nursing first through his wife's career and now as a student, he is pulled in several different career directions but all of them center on helping someone else.

Senli is contemplating working at a VA hospital in mental health, in a prison or in a hospital NICU. But he's not going to make any decisions until they move back to California and he's researched all the opportunities.

“The NICU calls to me because premies need constant monitoring so they can catch up to the full-term babies,” he says. “I love babies and I had a great experience working in the NICU during clinical rotation. However, I also think since I've been in the military that my eyes are open to what veterans have experienced and I think I could be of service in that area as well.”

Nonetheless, as a self-proclaimed citizen of the world this 35-year-old thinks he isn't done traveling yet—he would like to experience living in Japan and Australia .

Anything is possible for this Turkish born, American citizen who is quite willing to do whatever it takes to make his dreams come true.

Ozan' profile

For British-born Nicky Davies, her dreams are coming full circle—nursing and traveling.

Growing up in the United Kingdom , Davies watched her grandmother's health deteriorate after her grandfather died, which compelled her to get a mental health nursing degree in her early 20s. She then combined her career aspirations with her passion for travel and went to work in Australia 's prison system.

“I like talking with people, so the therapeutic side of mental-health nursing was a perfect career for me,” Davies says. “I always find myself sticking up for the underdog, that's why I like working with disadvantaged people.”

Australia is also where Davies met her American boyfriend Trevor Keeth. After spending several years in that country they decided to “come” home to the United States . Davies met with Dean Rose Porter the year before she started the accelerated program to see if her UK nursing degree would transfer as prerequisite credit.

“I came here with the intention of continuing in mental health and I was shocked to find that I enjoyed working in a medical setting,” the 28 year old says. “The in-depth clinical rotations where we were accompanied by our instructors gave the experience more structure than I was use to in my previous degree. It works well in my opinion because having access to our instructors created a bridge from what we learned in class to what was needed in the health-care setting.”

With graduation looming large, Davies has accepted a position in the MICU at Boone Hospital Center in Columbia, Mo.

“I know that language can and will be an obstacle to overcome. I've found that my accent is a good ice breaker to start a conversation.”

Once she gains the medical ICU experience she was previously lacking, she would like to tie it together with her passion for travel once again.

“I would love to be a part of the Doctors Without Borders program,” she says. “By gaining experience in the MICU, this program will tie together my two passions in life.”

Eventually, Davies would like to move back to Australia and work with the aborigines who are facing mental issues due to their socio-economic status. However, for the time being she is enjoying the final weeks of her nursing courses, hanging out with her boyfriend and their two cats, working at the University Bookstore and cooking vegetarian meals for her friends.

“I want to use my nursing career to help me travel,” Davies says. “I know
that language can and will be an obstacle to overcome, but I'm willing to take the steps necessary to make that work. And I've found that my accent is a good ice breaker to start a conversation.”

Nicky's profile

Conversation isn't at the top of Yun Jiang's (pronounced Yoon Jong) list of things to do when she's not in class. English has definitely been the hardest part of my education, she says.

Jiang moved to Columbia in 2004 to work on her masters of health informatics, which built upon a new Chinese undergraduate degree that combines medicine and technology. But once she obtained her masters, she knew she needed to gain the hands-on clinical health-care experience that was missing in her previous degrees.

“Technology can improve patient-care quality,” the international student says. “But if you don't know the clinical side, how can you help the process evolve? I needed to know how the technology fits into the process of improving patient care, and nurses working day in and day out are using many of the procedures that technology is trying to improve. So who would know what works and what doesn't? Nurses.”

Jiang grew up in the middle region of China in Ezhon, a mid-sized city of 7 million, next to the Yangtze River (the longest river in China ) as the youngest of three daughters. After she graduated with her bachelor's degree, she moved to the city of Shenzhen in southern China .

“Shenzhen is right across the river from Hong Kong ,” Jiang says. “Many college graduates run to this area because there is more opportunity to find a job with a better salary.”

However, salary wasn't enough to keep Jiang in China . She wanted to come to America to experience the use of highly advanced technology being used in everyday situations that isn't being extensively used in China .

This difference is most apparent in the health-care field.

When looking five years down the road, Jiang sees herself working as a nurse in the United States . “Maybe I can help introduce technologies into the situations where I'm working,” she says. “Because of my interest in health informatics, I could give feedback to the system's administrator on how to tweak the system to meet the needs of those who are using it.”

“I needed to know how the technology fits into the process of improving patient care.”

Technology and nursing work hand in hand to improve patient-care quality, two paths that Jiang is willing to merge for the benefit of patients.

So no matter if you apply to the School from within the United States or beyond its borders, the faculty are here to make sure those graduating from the program have the best education possible to start their careers.

Yun's profile