College hosts Japanese colleagues from Aomori University of Health and Welfare

Donna S. Havens, PhD, RN, FAAN, Connelly Endowed Dean, (right) welcomed to the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing Kazuko Kamiizumi, MSN, RN, (center) president and professor, Aomori University of Health and Welfare and Kie Kawauchi, PhD, associate professor and head of International Affairs.

The M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing welcomed distinguished visitors from Aomori University of Health and Welfare Sept. 25. The institutions established an Educational and Scholarly Exchange Agreement in 2005. Every other year, a Villanova Nursing student group, as part of an international field study in nursing elective, immerses in Japanese culture and learns about nursing and health care through the University which is in northern Japan.

Donna S. Havens, PhD, RN, FAAN, Connelly Endowed Dean, explored new options with Kazuko Kamiizumi, MSN, RN, president and professor, Aomori University of Health and Welfare and Kie Kawauchi, PhD, associate professor and head of International Affairs. “International exchange and dialogue is critical for students to enhance their global perspective and opens potential opportunities for both groups. We were delighted to host our colleagues from Japan and look forward to our continued relationship which has already benefitted so many of our students,” notes Dean Havens.

Faculty join with Japanese administrators and Dean Havens for a photo

The visit and experiences were arranged by Professor Nancy Sharts-Hopko, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF, CNE, interim director of the Center for Global and Public Health who taught at the former St. Luke’s College of Nursing in Tokyo in the mid-1980s. President Kamiizumi was her student there. The administrators enjoyed reconnecting with Nursing faculty who had led student groups to Aomori.

Also visiting from Aomori for several days were Professor Keiko Tei, and graduate students Kazuko Miyaguchi and Mariko Tanno. They toured campus and Nursing’s Simulation and Learning Resource Center; lunched with alumna and PhD student Carol Devlin, MSN, RNFA, CNOR; had an online discussion of health care organization and management with alumna, health care executive and Doctor of Nursing Practice student Maryalice Morro, MSN, RN; and had an informal dialogue - sponsored by the Center for Global and Public Health - with students and faculty in Driscoll Hall. Rounding out their campus visit, the group attended a graduate class taught by Cathy Todd Magel, PhD, RN, as well as a Graduate Nurse Network social.

Colleagues from three area hospitals facilitated clinical visits for the group as well as attendance at Main Line Health’s nursing research conference. They also visited pharmacies, an urgent care, and Unity Clinic, a nurse practitioner-run clinic established in South Philadelphia in 2006 by the Augustinian Defenders of the Rights of the Poor (ADROP) with the assistance of the Fitzpatrick College of Nursing.