Nursing Dean Lang advises Mexican nurses

Around the world, the nursing profession is lauded for enabling patients to become well enough to care for themselves. To that end, Nursing School Dean Norma Lang and 40 other nurses from around the country spent a week in Mexico earlier this month teaching a developing village about how to provide primary care for its own people. Lang said the purpose of the project, sponsored by the International Council of Nurses, is to "help countries become better able to take care of themselves." The Council brought nurses together in Mexico in order to share their training and expertise with nurses at local clinics. The project's chosen site, Tlaxcala, Mexico, was described by Lang as "under-served." "There were 15,000 people, one physician and two nurses," she said. She added that only two beds were available to serve the needs of the entire population. "[Our help] was really needed," Lang added. "The problem was in understanding how we could mobilize the community to do something about [their needs]." The 40 nurses, speaking both Spanish and English, served as teachers by taking field trips to the local clinics. They attempted to address the problems of sewage, family planning, dehydration from lack of adequate water supply and other health care issues. The cultural outreach experience gave the nurses "a sense of empowerment," Lang said. "It was an incredible experience." For one week, the nurses ate and worked together. Several interpreters aided them in communicating. "It was interesting to see the similarities and commonalities among nursing [practices]," Lang said. "[We were able to] help nurses name what it is they're doing in nursing practices, and share their knowledge." Alice Baumgart, a post-doctoral student at the University, said the unity among the nurses was encouraging. "It seemed as if it didn't matter what part of the world the nurses were from," said Baumgart, who is a board member of the ICN. "There was a general feeling of excitement." "I think for me, it was one of the most exciting meetings I've been to in a while," Baumgart added. "It is my job to convey that enthusiasm to the board." The next conference of the International Council of Nurses, which currently represents about 110 countries and 1.5 million nurses, will be held in Geneva, Switzerland in August. And Baumgart hopes the next conference, like the one held in Mexico, will continue to meet the Council's mission -- to develop and promote nursing on a world-wide basis. The ICN's most recent project, funded by the Kellogg Foundation, focused their community-based care in the regions of South Africa, South America and Mexico. Lang said she hopes to repeat this "very exciting experience" with the same group of nurses in another region of the world. "Nurses are phenomenal people," Lang said. "They were able to share medical and nursing knowledge, but also political knowledge."