HCARE staff reflections of their time working overseas as part of student mobility projects

1. STAFF REFLECTIONS
HCARE Staff Accounts of Working Overseas

2. A Way of Seeing Things Instead of Thinking How Things May be: the
Erasmus Exchange Programme
Pauline Tang (Lecturer and Coordinator Erasmus Exchange Programme)
Judith Benbow (Director of Undergraduate Studies)
In June 2011, we visited the Nursing Faculty in the National and Kapodistrian
University of Athens. The aim of the monitoring visit was to review the continued
suitability of the placement for our Module 7 and 8 BN Adult students Specialist and
Critical Care international placements (Erasmus Exchange Programme). The British
Council Erasmus scheme funded our visit. During the visit we updated our
international partner on the support required by both the outgoing and incoming
students. We met both academic and clinical staff that will be supporting SONMS
students and had the opportunity to observe the School, the hospital settings and
placements which students will encounter as learning experiences.
The brief visit enabled us to develop network opportunities and to relate to the
students Erasmus 'cross boundary' teaching and learning opportunities providing an
opportunity for us to compare and contrast experiences through a cultural and
academic experience from the inside out on issues such as:
 cross-cultural ethics;
 research knowledge and skills – a more cosmopolitan and international
perspective;
 language skills;
 the new perspective - our partner's world
Individual growth and developing an outward looking focus is about opportunity. So
what transformative opportunities can be promoted through 'cross boundary'
studies? What tangible benefits can the student gain from undertaking 'cross
boundary' experiences? Anthropologists have suggested that virtually all societies
have more than one culture within their borders- a patchwork of different
subcultures and several coexisting world views (Helman 2007). At its best, 'cross
boundary' experience can enrich and diversify our undergraduate nursing education.
Offering students opportunities to learn and grow. To challenge themselves, stretch
their limits and foster an appreciation of the disciplines of nursing and anthropology,
about other cultures and the current concerns about the multicultural context of
healthcare. Instead of thinking how things may be, they will be able to see them as
they are.

3. Students experience being members of societies in ‘foreign’ lands, the experience
will shape their views of the world and can be life changing. The twelve weeks
experiential and field-based learning contribute to the development of knowledge,
craft and skills as well as developing intellectual and personal maturity. When we
have asked some past incoming and outgoing students ‘What did you enjoy most?”
They have said:-
 Travelling here and getting to know the culture, meeting people and learning
about nursing here (Students -Tampere, Finalnd).
 Exploring the Welsh lifestyle and working in a hospital of other country, I will
not forget my mentor who is a real role model (Students – Bilbao, Spain)
 The teamwork on the wards (Student-Athens, Greece)
 Discovering the different reality in job and place and new nursing roles
(Student – Milan, Italy)
 Living in a new culture and becoming more self-confident in both placement
and personal life (CSONMS student –Finland)
The ability to work
independently, deal with
ambiguity, being flexible and
adaptable to new surroundings,
developing analytical abilities and
problem-solving skills are tools
much prized by employers and
the nursing profession and which
the student will continue to call
upon long after the programme
ends. These tools are transferable
to both personal and professional aspects of life and can assist the transition from
student to qualified nurse. As the students comments have illustrated, the use of
'cross boundary' experiences to regulate imagination by reality is what makes the
Erasmus experience so worthwhile. Following our visit, we recommend that we
continue our partnership with the Nursing Faculty in the National and Kapodistrian
University of Athens. The placement has also been audited for one lecturer
exchange.
Reference: Helman, C.G (2007) Culture, Health and Illness. Hodder Arnold, London

4. Erasmus Links
Gareth Morgan
In the past ten years I have been privileged to travel under the auspices of the
Erasmus teaching scheme to visit some of our European partner institutions. These
visits have encompassed a range of aims and have all been funded by the Erasmus
grants. Their aims have differed, as has the timescale of the sojourn, but the
successes have been manifold and I hope the below synopsis captures the essence of
the varied experiences.
OM visits to establish study compatibility with potential new partners.
Before a partnership agreement is signed one has to engage in a preliminary visit to
assess the relative fit of the respective programmes that each institution is offering.
This involves an initial application process for an OM Erasmus grant which funds the
visit abroad.
Visits to students’ placement abroad.
These visits are usually conducted at the midway stage of the students’ Erasmus
placement in their host university. The visit is initially organised by pre contact with
the respective international office and the Erasmus host lecturer who plans the visit
in conjunction with our requests. As part of these visits, I have lead seminar groups
in which our and host students participate, visited students’ clinical placements
where they are on assessed placement and delivered talks to host university
students to encourage them to participate in reciprocal visits to Cardiff. I have also
met with our students often over coffee in the evening to discuss their general
progress and support their research projects which often have to be continued
whilst abroad.
TM visits
Teaching mobility visits are designed to support the teaching process at both
institutions. I have used these grants several times to both teach at undergraduate
level in our partner institutions and shared research areas via a lunchtime/evening
lecture to both university staff and clinical colleagues that the university have
invited. This has aided my reflection on the subject after questions from the
European audience which have helped develop a more European perspective to the
subject matter. Further contacts have been made through such lectures leading to
further developments both for our own university and the host.
The experiences I have been privileged to engage in have undoubtedly opened new
opportunities both on a personal and institutional level. I unreservedly recommend
such opportunities to colleagues.

5. The “Foreign” to the “Familiar”:
A Nurse Lecturer’s Reflection on Teaching Abroad
Judith Benbow
One morning I was running late for work, nibbling some breakfast in the car, when I
stopped for a moment and realised that I wasn’t in my car: I was in a foreign car in a
foreign country. Yet why did I feel so comfortable as if everything was so routine and
familiar?
For the first time I was teaching for two weeks on our University’s satellite MSc. in
Nursing programme in Bavaria, Germany. Looking back now I can see before coming
to Bavaria (despite reassurance from others) I was fearful of the unknown, the
foreign country, people, university, leaving my family and the potential foreign
feelings these would generate in me. Yet, within a few days through chatting, critical
conversation and connecting with the students I felt a real sense of comfort in the
“familiar”, so what I ask myself is the “familiar”? I realise that to me it is the
satisfying search to clarify meaning in both our professional and personal lives in the
pursuit of developing nursing. Despite geographical or cultural differences, nursing
wonderfully connects us through our shared values and goals.
From
experiencing
this “foreign”
discomfort I
have been
reminded of the
necessity to
take some risks,
to receive
inspiration from
others to be
able to
challenge,
celebrate and reconstruct the “familiar”. I realise the need to be more receptive to
opportunities and to be less fearful of risks to encourage and support others and to
remember those who have supported me. I am hopeful that this experience will give
me the confidence to do this.

6. I am also sure that when I am trying not to be late for work (and eating my breakfast
in the car) I will stop and think of everyone who has made this such a memorable
learning experience.
Danke!

7. Calling all Home Birds to Spread their Wings
Mike Johnson
I am happy living in Wales. I see this, from a
global perspective, as an extreme advantage,
luxury even. I can often be heard to say, "Why go
to x when Pembrokeshire is 2 hours away?!" This
annoys my wife who has more than merely
visited an underprivileged society. Two years
after qualifying at the Royal Free, in 1991 she
volunteered to help in the infamous Romanian
AIDS-ridden orphanages: a harrowing, life-changing experience she would repeat!
My trips have been far less impressive and claims to being a
'home-bird' meet with a certain amount of eye-rolling from her.
The School has supported my wishes to attend or present at the
biennial International Conference on Networked Learning in
sunny Lancaster (UK), Halkidiki (Greece), Aalborg (Denmark), and
Maastricht (Netherlands). These have been terrific opportunities
to blow some decent theory through the mental cobwebs, as well as develop links
with international scholars, like Ben Kehrwald (Academic Developer, School of
Education, University of South Australia) who gave a seminar for us earlier this year
on his way to the Networked Learning Conference (Edinburgh).
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