UIW Health Profession Schools Utilize Study Abroad to Broaden Students’ Perspectives

UIW has five health profession schools that rank among the best in the nation: Feik School of Pharmacy (FSOP), Ila Faye Miller School of Nursing and Health Professions (SNHP), Rosenberg School of Optometry (RSO), School of Osteopathic Medicine (SOM) and School of Rehabilitation Sciences (SoRS). Each school’s curriculum emphasizes critical thinking, holistic approaches and clinical experience that will enable aspiring healthcare practitioners to graduate practice-ready across a variety of professional settings.

In addition to being aware of the requirements needed to effectively treat local patients and communities, globalization has also made it crucial for healthcare professionals to consider how they can also treat those in need on a global level. Several UIW study abroad trips this summer aimed to help health professions students do just that.

This summer, SNHP led a group of 35 pharmacy students as part of the course “Study Abroad for Healthcare Professions” to central Europe, visiting locations such as Berlin, Prague, Vienna and Budapest. Students were encouraged to immerse themselves in local cultures and learn from experts in the field.

“I’ve been helping to lead study abroad trips for 25 years,” noted Dr. Irene Gilliland, UIW professor emerita of Nursing. “Students learn that the populations that we serve, don't believe in our kind of medicine. We can't go to China and start doing our western practices on them when they don't believe in it. That would alienate patients. So, trips like these open minds to other ways of thinking, and help people realize that we have a lot to learn from other places.”

During their trip, students were able to speak with European pharmacy students to compare aspects such as education, salaries and their roles, as well as the cost and accessibility of socialized medicine. UIW students were also given the opportunity to visit a pharmacy established over 1,000 years ago to see how pharmacists of the past made medicines and other drugs for patient care.

“I learned what it’s like to be in an area that speaks a different language, has different currency and measures everything in different kinds of measurements,” reflected one of the participating students. “In my pharmacy profession I will run into people from different parts of the world. I need to be kind and patient to ensure they receive the proper medication safety they deserve.”

Additionally, Dr. Brian Foutch, associate professor at RSO, led 11 optometry students to Strasbourg, France and Heidelberg, Germany as part of his course “Legal Aspects and Public Health Optometry.” Students visited local museums and facilities related to the practice of optometry.

“We originally only went to Strasbourg because UIW has a European Study Center there, but we added on Heidelberg because there's so much science and optics history that is material to what we do in our business of optometry,” explained Foutch.

While traveling, students heard the frustrations of optometrists in the area about their restrictive licensure that hinders them from practicing medicine without violating laws, leaving them unable to diagnose or treat patients to the capacity that optometrists can in the U.S.

“Students will come up to me saying they had no idea how frustrating it must be to be an optometrist there until they got to visit with one, watch them work with some patients and talk to them one-on-one about that. That's a unique opportunity and a perspective that I cannot give them in class. It only happens during these study abroad experiences,” shared Dr. Foutch.

Students also get to see optic practices in these countries that are not often found in the U.S., such as clinics recycling lens blanks to turn into functional glasses in house for patients to wear. Foutch recalls one student expressing that they would like to open a clinic up to do something similar one day.

“In just the two-week duration of my course, I can see students come back with a broadened perspective, their confidence is deepened, they have considered how they'll take care of patients,” said Foutch of the value of study abroad experiences for healthcare students.

Also this summer, Dr. Karen Jaceldo-Siegl, associate professor of Public Health at UIWSOM, with support from the Ettling Center for Civic Leadership & Sustainability, led a medical mission to Carigara, Leyte, Philippines and surrounding areas. This inaugural mission-driven program provided a unique opportunity for participating students and faculty to deliver health care services to those with limited resources and gain clinical and public health skills in challenging environments alongside local and volunteer medical and health professionals. The medical mission took participants to rural communities in Carigara, Palompon, and Limon. Read more about this trip in the upcoming summer edition of The Word Magazine.