The CSB/SJU Nursing Department has attracted visitors from across the world.
The Center for Global Education and the Nursing Department are co-hosting four nursing students and two faculty members from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa. They arrived on campus Jan. 22 and will stay until Feb. 5. The group has been interacting with nursing students and attending classes. This is the first time the students have traveled outside of South Africa.
The student visitors, Terri Leigh Burton, Frezia Shaney Adams, Jode Goliath and Nonelala Viwe Sakube, have enjoyed shadowing the nursing program. Touring hospitals and clinic facilities has given them a taste of the American health care system. They observed differences between their country’s health care systems and the United States.
“Nursing delivers a bulk of the health care in South Africa,” CSB/SJU nursing instructor Gary Gillitzer said. “In America, it’s more of a team effort.”
The South African nursing students said that their country’s shortage of physicians requires nurses to adapt to the roles and duties typically accomplished by physicians.
The health care systems are also different in terms of the public and private sectors.
“Ours is quite a different thing,” Goliath said. “Our public sector is for everyone who can’t afford health care, and the private sector is for those you can afford it.”
The four guests noted cultural differences in the classroom. The informal atmosphere combined with smaller class sizes at CSB/SJU allows for more student participation and relationship formation between students and professors.
“I wish our lectures were like this,” Goliath said.
The students’ time at CSB/SJU has not been solely dedicated to classroom lectures.
“We try to create a balance of academic as well as social and cultural aspects,” Gillitzer said.
To gain a sense of the American culture, as well as the CSB/SJU community culture, the guests attended a Blazer basketball game, toured the St. John’s Bible, bowled at El Paso and shopped at the Mall of America, the Albertville Outlet Mall and Wal-Mart.
Despite the thousands of miles that separate the visitors from their home country, they saw some similarities between CSB/SJU and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Both colleges have two separate campuses. One of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s campuses is in an urban setting, while the other is located in the bush. However, Goliath noticed one minor difference between her university and CSB/SJU.
“You guys have squirrels running around, and we have monkeys,” Goliath said.
CSB/SJU nursing students have enjoyed the opportunity to host the South African nursing students in class. The guests attended two nursing classes of CSB junior Sarah Berkowitz. From them, Berkowitz learned about South Africa’s hospital system and the lack of funding.
“It gave me the chance to look at health care globally instead of just in the U.S.A.,” Berkowitz said.
Gillitzer said that the exchange program with the university in South Africa is just one aspect that makes the CSB/SJU Nursing Department unique. The nursing program offers three international travel experiences – South Africa, Belize and Ecuador.
“St. Ben’s has the ability to have an international nursing experience,” Gillitzer said. “Most baccalaureate nursing programs don’t have that opportunity.”
The South African visitors will be heading to St. Cloud State University after their time at CSB/SJU and will be returning home Feb. 22.