El Curso Enfermeria serves students in Wisconsin, Peru

Susan Gallagher-Lepak, associate professor in Nursing at UW-Green Bay, is co-teaching the online course “Nursing Diagnosis and Functional Health Patterns,” and her students include some currently enrolled at a university in Peru.

The nursing course (el curso enfermeria) is available to students from UW-Green Bay and its international exchange partner, the Universidad de Tumbes in Tumbes, Peru.  Yrene Urbina Rojas, a professor at the Tumbes school, is coordinating student participation on her campus.  She reports that nursing students there were eager to participate in this offering with more students interested than online “seats” available.

Gallagher-Lepak’s co-teacher is Heather Herdman, currently a visiting researcher at the Federal University of Sao Paulo (Brazil).

“She is co-teaching the course from Brazil, for students in the United States and Peru,” Gallagher-Lepak says. “It’s a global world!”

Herdman also serves as executive director of NANDAI, an international organization devoted to the development and use of standardized nursing terminology around the world. Standardized nursing diagnostic terminology is gaining popularity in Latin America. Recently, in Peru, its use has been mandated by the Peruvian Board of Nursing.

UW-Green Bay signed a memorandum of understanding with the Universidad de Tumbes in 2009, encouraging departments from both institutions to explore collaborations with their  counterparts.

This is the second online collaboration regarding Green Bay/Peru online offering. The first was piloted by UW-Green Bay Interim Dean and Nursing Prof. Derryl Block. Staff member Andy Speth and colleagues in the Learning Technology Center have assisted in assessing technology capabilities at Tumbes and in developing a bilingual, online course shell (with bilingual labels on the navigation bar, for example), and providing course support.