The students came based on an agreement with Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) in Malawi. USN and KCN has a partnership on Erasmus+ Global Mobility, that provides for exchanges from Malawi to Norway.
The main goal in this Erasmus+ programme is exchange of nursing students from Malawi to USN and short-term staff exchanges between the two partners. In addition, the future plans is to expand the collaboration to include the following activities:
- Collaborative academic research projects and lectures
- Collaborative curriculum development
- Joint postgraduate student supervision and professional development programs
- Collaboration on dual or joint degree programs
- Exchange of information and materials in fields which are of interest to both parties
Apart from student exchange, two teachers from KCN came to USN in October 2019 to discuss further exchange, cooperation and to give lectures. Lastly, the granted funds for the academic year 2018-2019 will give two teacher from USN the possibility to go KCN to follow up our cooperation and give lectures in nursing spring 2020.
A new experience
Project coordinator, Eva Merethe Solum, says that the students in Malawi do not get loans to finance their studies and this fund is a great opportunity for them to get and share useful experience within the field of nursing and global health. None of the students had ever been out of Africa before and had to undertake a lot of preparations , such as getting visa and insurance. One other thing they pointed out as a challenge, was that even if they were informed to bring clothes for the cold winter, it was a shock and they had for sure underestimated the extremes of winter.
The student's feedback
“We got all the necessary briefing concerning our course and what was expected of us and also our stay at the University. The teachers and our classmates were welcoming and including and we felt at home” (Mathews) .“The course in Global Health have helped in my professional development, it was so amazing as it taught me the global view of most health challenges”(Davie).
“As a nurse I will use acquired knowledge on global health in delivering quality care to my clients. I will do this by addressing health inequalities, understanding their culture, helping vulnerable groups and empowering clients to realize their potential while at the same time trying to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development goals” (Janet).
All the students agree that student involvement throughout the course was so awesome. At USN, I enjoyed working in groups and having students taking an active role in the learning process. This offers students a chance to get to know each other and develop a spirit of multidisciplinary team working as well as shaping them into great and self-expressing leaders”.
This following sum up their stay at USN:
“I love the spirit that the teachers and students had, friendly, accommodative, open and approachable. I also enjoyed extracurricular activities like exploring various places with our main contact at USN, and being with fellow students and the parties we had with other international students”.(hvem sa dette)