Indonesia

Lead Faculty: Dr. Joan E. Edwards

Background

TWU faculty and nursing students embarked on their first visit to Indonesia in Spring 2012. At the time, Dr. Edwards was living in Indonesia under the auspices of a 10 month Fulbright Scholarship at the invitation of the Indonesian government to assess initial professional nursing education programs in Indonesia, comparing curricula to the 2009 World Health Organization Global Standards for Initial Nursing and Midwifery Education Standard III. One of the nursing programs with which Dr. Edwards was working, was the University of Padjadaran (UNPAD) in Bandung, Java.

Education Abroad Courses

In March 2012, ten TWU faculty and graduate nursing students participated in the 3^rd International Nursing Conference held at UNPAD. Conference attendees and presenters came from Indonesia, USA, Japan, Malaysia, and Thailand. The conference was titled “Bringing Current Research into Nursing Practice for Improving Quality of Care”. Presentations were made by all participants from Texas Woman’s University.

Since 2012, TWU faculty and nursing students, graduate and undergraduate, have participated in additional Education Abroad courses to Indonesia in 2014 and 2016. The next trip is planned for May 2018. A component of these Education Abroad courses involves individual or group development and preparation of PICO posters which are shared at nursing programs, health facilities and conferences. Students focus on a health issue common to the host county and the USA. After identifying the relevance of the health topic, students do a brief literature review of current research from the past 5 years related to the chosen health issue. The level of evidence and quality of each article is assessed. Interventions to improve outcomes are gleaned from the articles, a culturally appropriate plan of action is developed along with identification of outcomes that would be measured to validate the benefit of the intervention. Content is placed into a PICO poster format for presentation in Indonesia.

Current foci within Indonesia

In addition to the biennial Education Abroad trips to Indonesia, a collaborative research project is being explored. The application process has also begun for development of a Sigma Theta Tau International Indonesian honor society and then Chapter with the support of STTI Beta Beta Houston Chapter.