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Hillary Terrell

Hillary Terrell, Class of 2015

Learning Abroad Program: Interprofessional Global Health in Ghana

U Background: BSN in Nursing, 2015

Current Position: Travel Nurse 

My Story:

My name is Hillary Terrell and I would like to share with you how the Inter-Professional Global Health in Ghana program with the U of U has helped my career growth as a nurse. First of all, I believe this program differs from other learning abroad opportunities in a few ways: it is inter-professional, it allows exposure to a non-developed country, and its focus is global health.

This program allowed me to learn with and learn from medical professionals other than nurses like medical students and medical doctors. We worked as a team in order to gain the most knowledge prior to, during, and after this program. I gained new perspectives because of this, which now helps me communicate more effectively with my colleagues.

Traveling from Utah to Ghana was an eye-opening experience. In Utah and many other developed areas of the world we tend to not think twice about the luxury that is soap, clean water, air conditioning, flushing waste and toilet paper together, warm water from an eye level spout for showers (rather than filling buckets with cold water to shower with), laundry machines, a balanced diet, telephones, internet access, birth control, child care, and appropriate gear to protect against the hot climate and disease carrying bugs. However, when I was in Ghana those things were not readily available.

Most often in America we see ‘humanitarian’ programs, since most people have a desire to help others. This learning abroad program is not that. In a way, I felt as though I was taking more out of this experience than if I were a participant on those programs. However, I have learned programs such as ‘TOMS’ shoes, dress donations, and building schools are actually doing more harm than the intended good. We met shoe and dress makers who were so talented and worked so hard in order to provide their communities with functional items for their environment. I was able to expand my thinking and see that if America is shipping ‘free’ shoes and clothing to countries like Ghana then those shoe and dress makers are suffering and the economy has no chance of sustainability. In villages we came across abandoned buildings that appeared more ‘American’ styled. The locals informed us that groups often come for 2 weeks and help build a new school with different tools and styles from America, but they are not able to maintain them due to lack of resources and/or the location wasn’t mapped out in order to work well within their community/village.

Hillary holding baby

We traveled from Kumasi into small villages where we were the first ‘Caucasian’ appearing people the locals had ever seen. We worked with nurses in the local hospitals, learning their ways of caring for their community with very little resources. Their paper documentation of the limited vaccinations available to the children and their organization and use of resources was truly remarkable. I will never forget the “wheelchairs” we used. They were made of bicycle wheels attached to a white plastic chair you normally see on a porch, pool, or deck. To the average American this may sound like a sad way of living, but these people are truly the happiest people I have ever come in contact with. That is something extremely valuable that I learned and I carry on throughout my career and life, so much so that I live as simply as possible that best suits me. An example of this is building out an AWD Astro van and living in it. I am doing so as I am travel nursing.  This allows me to always have a gauranteed home whereever I go.  It has challenged me, just like my journey in Ghana did, in order to make use of resources such as water, propane and electricity.  However, it has truly been the best thing for my personal growth overall and in my career, just like the learning abroad programs I was a part of.

I would highly recommend this program, however due to unfortunate events, the last I heard this specific program was no longer available. Prior to this finding, my colleagues and I had meetings with the Dean and other educators within the college of nursing sharing our experiences and expressing the value of this program in order to help their decision to keep it.

In summary, ever since I was a child I was always interested in traveling the world. In fact, I wrote in my 4th grade autobiography, “When I grow up I will be single and traveling the world”. This program was the second learning abroad I was a part of, the first was to Japan with SLCC. These programs have helped my personal growth within nursing. I am now a travel nurse, this allows me to work in various hospitals within the states for approximately 3-6 months at a time. The experiences I had during my programs abroad have allowed me to connect and empathize within diverse populations.

Note: The first photo is at the main hospital in Kumasi with two of the nurses we worked with and the second shows the fabric they use to carry their children safely on their backs. It allows for bonding as well. They were so willing to teach us. 

 

Last Updated: 7/12/22