Nursing students attend 34th annual Transcultural Nursing Conference
With financial support from the provost office, College of Nursing, and RAIN program, four University of North Dakota nursing students attended the 34th annual Transcultural Nursing Conference in Minneapolis in September as an optional learning experience in a nursing course.
Jenny Gietzen, Breanne Loesch, Michelle Peltier, and Christine Seames attended the conference to broaden their scope of knowledge about providing nursing care to culturally diverse individuals, families, and communities.
“This conference couldn’t have come at a better time in our educational experience,” said Gietzen. “We are new to the nursing world but it is a great opportunity to begin young and have experiences like this to add to our knowledge and professional careers.”
Loesch was motivated to attend the conference because she is interested in traveling around the world while working as a nurse and wants to be better prepared to care for individuals, families, and communities from diverse cultures.
Peltier said that “the conference was an eye-opener, coming from a small rural community we don’t see how diverse the outside is. As nurses we need to be culturally competent to understand what the patient is going through and what the patient needs to get better.”
Through attending the plenary and various concurrent sessions at the conference, Seames felt that she was exposed to global health care issues. “I really think that people forget how different healthcare is around the world. The United States is very lucky to have the advanced technology and education that we do.”
The highlight of the conference was meeting Madeleine Leininger, a famous nurse theorist and founder of the Transcultural Nursing Society. Peltier commented, “A week prior to attending the conference, we were talking about Dr. Leininger’s Sunrise Model, not knowing how important the model is in the world of transcultural nursing. Then meeting and seeing her at the conference was unbelievable.” The students were impressed that Dr. Leininger “always questioned things and challenged herself to find out “why.” Hearing about Dr. Leininger’s journey as a nurse helped the students revisit important concepts in nursing - critical thinking and reflection - as important traits of being a great nurse.
-- Becky Cournia, Alumni & Development Officer, College of Nursing, beckycournia@mail.und.edu, 777-4526 |