APRN Faculty and APRN Students Perception on Global Health: Serving the Medically Underserved in a Developing Country

With a growing focus on global healthcare needs, the role of the advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) stands poised to meet primary health care needs at an international level. As initiatives to provide healthcare to developing nations move to the forefront in world healthcare, it is imperative to provide foundational knowledge in the expanding role for the APRN.  Using a phenomenological approach, this presentation will focus on issues faced when APRN faculty and their students provide healthcare in a developing nation. It will examine the personal and professional growth gained, and the challenges faced when managing acute and chronic diseases with limited resources in an unfamiliar country. Nurses have an obligation to safeguard, respect, and actively promote people’s health rights at all times and in all place (ICN, 2011). Keeping with this mission, APRN faculty strives to lay a foundation for global health by integrating it into curriculum and into practice.