Plotnick Endowment Annual Report 2017-2018

This year, being the inaugural year of the endowment, the major focus of the program was to explore, learn and listen to nursing leadership, faculty, students and community members who invest or hold intention to work in global public health with the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s CON. One course release in the fall semester for this academic year was designated for the global endowment.

Central to this focused work are the faculty who lead the international programs currently within the College. Dr. Maryellen Brisbois and Professor Paula Walsh discussed their work in the Azores and Haiti, respectively. Both programs have been in place for the past five years and are situated in the traditional undergraduate Community Nursing Clinical course. Additionally, Dr. Brisbois directs the Global Health Collaborative within the college and has oversight of the Community Health Van.

• Bridging the Atlantic, the Azorean student-faculty exchange, receives funding from the Mello Foundation with assistance from the Plotnick funds.
• The Haiti program collaborates with Partners in Development (PID), a long-standing non-profit organization that serves underserved populations across the Americas. This program secures the majority of funds from student fees with support from the Plotnick funds.

In effort to expand partnerships, notably in Haiti and to secure funds for global outreach grant opportunities with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Haiti) and Goddard Foundation (Mobile Van) were presented and reviewed. Professor Walsh connected with the PID nursing staff and explored the opportunity to re-establish the Vaccine Program at PID and to develop nurse faculty partnerships with the National School of Nursing in Port au Prince. Further, the opportunity for UMass Dartmouth’s College of Nursing (CON) faculty to participate on a panel at international and national conferences was presented in effort to advance and disseminate the work of the College of Nursing at UMass Dartmouth.

In the fall term, the Dean approved a university membership with the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH), an international organization whose vision and mission is to support partnerships, towards the advancement of health across the globe. This organization offers webinars, conferences and networks for learning and collaboration. Further, I extended an invitation to Nursing faculty to join CUGH and to engage with the Global Nursing Caucus. Information on membership, upcoming meetings and conferences was shared via email and at faculty and department meetings.

A new partnership with Partners in Health (PIH), nursing colleagues from the Neno District in Malawi and faculty leaders at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) was proposed in the fall. ‘Bridge in a Box’ is an innovative way to offer asynchronous on-line education to current nurses seeking a BSN, bridging them to a BSN using a tablet that has course materials and internet capacity for course participation. In LMIC, opportunity for baccalaureate education is limited due to constrained systems, distance to university campuses and finances. This pilot program, supported by colleagues at PIH and UGHE, holds great potential to opening educational opportunity to advance nursing education and health care. Key nursing faculty with pedagogical and online teaching expertise may serve as project leaders.

Spring semester provided the opportunity to extend and develop a new partnership with Partners in Development. The CON hosted a lunch with Gale Hull, the executive director of Partners in Development, to identify the needs of the communities and align them with our global work. Shelley Lynch committed to leading an inaugural cohort of ABS students to Mississippi for AY 19- 20. Hannah Barth, a DNP student, agreed to work alongside Professor Lynch on this program.

Throughout the academic year, efforts were made to raise the profile of UMass D within the broader global nursing community. Faculty and students presented at the Global Nursing Caucus annual conference in October. In the fall, faculty attended the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and mentored global nursing fellows on a panel presentation. Additional membership and attendance was secured with the Coalition to Advance Nursing in Haiti, CUGH as member of the Building Health Capacity committee and Unite for Sight at Yale. Additionally, global health faculty at the University of Maryland, George Washington University and Boston University networked with CON faculty to identify key components for a global health curriculum towards the creation of a minor for undergraduate students and began working on a proposal for the minor in the Spring semester with the guidance from the Dean and Department Chair.

Louise Ivers M.D., Executive Director of MGH Global Health spoke with students who traveled to Haiti about the cholera epidemic. Dr. Manzi Anatole, Evaluation Program Director and Cory McMahon, Director of Nursing at Partners in Health, presented on global nursing to the Community Nursing students.