International travel opportunities from the School of Nursing and Health Studies and other host programs spur students and faculty alike to expand their health care horizons and forge new long-distance connections. Below is a sampling of their insights from this summer’s adventures abroad.
Claudia Diaz, a critical care RN in Miami, described the week she spent in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, with nine fellow Master of Science in Nursing students and two faculty members as “nothing short of extraordinary.” Diaz’s action-packed week from June 7 to 14 included observing open-heart surgery, team-teaching two clinical workshops, and assisting in the emergency department. “I had the privilege of working alongside brilliant residents and doctors who generously shared their knowledge and walked us through their clinical processes with patience and depth,” said Diaz, who graduates this August. Professor of Clinical Johis Ortega, associate dean for hemispheric and global Initiatives, and nursing faculty member Erick Zarabozo accompanied the students during their time at Clínica Médica Universitaria Unión del Norte. “Our students rotated through diverse units at the hospital according to their program track,” said Ortega. “Every student’s experience was different.” Andrea Zdrnja, B.S.N. ’24, for example, got to shadow an oncological gynecologist. Zdrnja’s only complaint? “I wish we had more time,” she said. “A week to pick the doctor's brain definitely is not enough. I would go again if given the chance.” The week culminated in an official renewal of the longstanding educational partnership between both institutions.
For the first time in the course’s long history, students enrolled in the popular summer elective BPH 487: Global Health Practicum, took on not one but two European health systems in two weeks. “This is the type of educational program that really makes the University of Miami special,” said participant Tessa Fabiano, a nursing major. “We got to explore so many different cultures and landscapes while getting to know students from both Romania and Spain.” School of Nursing and Health Studies Faculty member Diego Deleon split the international itinerary in half, giving ten students from various University of Miami academic programs a week studying Spain’s health system firsthand in Madrid and Toledo, followed by a week doing the same in Romania. “My favorite part was going to the nursing school in Bucharest, where we took part in interactive simulation and virtual reality activities,” said Fabiano. “My biggest takeaway was how vastly different the education and health care systems are from one country to another, but the competencies of nurses and health care providers remain consistent from one country to the next.”
Empowered in Africa
Soon after returning from a semester in Spain, public health student Elayna Bassuk repacked her bags and crossed continents yet again, all in pursuit of her passion for public health. Bassuk spent June in Tanzania, East Africa, where winter was underway instead of summer. She spent her first week learning basics of the Kiswahili language and culture at a local university. “One assignment was to visit a food market and, using the Swahili we had learned, order the ingredients necessary to make lunch the next day,” recalled Bassuk. The following two weeks, she lived with children and staff at an orphanage and community center in the town of Arusha. Although Tanzania is one of the world’s 15 poorest nations, Bassuk was impressed by the wealth of educational enrichment and human connection she experienced. “I made sincere connections with all of the people who live at this community center, and I’m still texting them via WhatsApp,” she said. Working with the organization Voyota, which stands for voice of youth Tanzania, she and her peers from another university interviewed Voyota staff and students in order to create a mentoring program first-year college students in Arusha. She and her team plan to present a mentor training session in September and evaluate the program’s impact via subsequent check-ins. “I feel as if everything I have been studying at the University of Miami about public health and global health really came to light through this trip to Africa,” said Bassuk, who starts the 4+1 Master of Public Health program at the Miller School of Medicine in August. “Ultimately, I gained a deeper appreciation for the privileges I have. I also was able to learn about and experience unique and new cultures. Going to Africa, I witnessed people living with inequalities, difficulties, and huge obstacles. I will take this experience with me throughout my career in public health, and generally throughout life.”
Their connection began over a year earlier, when Brenda Owusu, associate professor of clinical and director of the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program, was selected to join the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing’s Global Leadership Mentoring initiative. She and her mentee, Tarja Kvist, head of the nursing science department at the University of Eastern Finland, collaborated monthly over Zoom, getting acquainted and discussing their work. So, when Owusu learned that the International Council of Nurses’ 2025 Congress would take place in Helsinki, Finland’s capital city, she knew she’d have to attend. Owusu had such a positive experience that her first time there likely won’t be her last. Over the course of the whirlwind week, she and Kvist finally met in person and immediately hit it off. She also met Sigma’s president, Sandra Bibb, and many other nurses from around the world. In addition, Owusu moderated the Congress’s "New Models of Care" panel and was named director of education and policy for a global group she belongs to remotely called the Ghanaian-Diaspora Nursing Alliance. “It was phenomenal,” said Owusu, current president of Beta Tau, the school’s Sigma chapter. “I really enjoyed it.”
Welcoming visitors
Summer was also a time to welcome foreign visitors to the School of Nursing and Health Studies. Spanish nursing students from Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, a private university in Madrid, completed their month-long observer program in Miami this June. The activities and shadowing opportunities took place at the school’s 41,000-square-foot S.H.A.R.E. Simulation Hospital Advancing Research & Education® (S.H.A.R.E.) and various departments at UHealth — the University of Miami Health System. The school also welcomed leading nurse educators from Peru for the second summer in a row. Representing Asociación Peruana de Facultades y Escuelas de Enfermería (ASPEFEEN), they spent a week completing a specialized health care workshop titled "Promoción de la Educación en Enfermería Mediante la Simulación" (promoting nursing education through simulation) with simulation experts at S.H.A.R.E. The course will help promote the use of simulation best practices in educating nursing students throughout Peru.
Just before summer, Nicole Gonzaga Gomez, associate director of the school’s Nurse Anesthesia Program, led two current students and one alumna on a medical mission to Cuenca, Ecuador, through a program led by the Healing Hands Foundation. They were among two dozen volunteers helping surgeons perform 106 pediatric and adult surgeries in one week, from April 25 to May 3, at no cost for patients in need.
