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NEWS
WKCTC Staff Travel to Nepal
While others will be sitting down to the normal feast on Thanksgiving
Day, President Barbara Veazey may be relegated to rice and goat
meat for her celebration.
 Veazey
left November 11 for a three-week
trip to Southeast Asia University in Bangkok, Thailand, and
the Nepal School of Nursing in Pokhara. She along with Tena
Payne, nursing program director at West Kentucky Community and
Technical College; and Analy Scorsone, Kentucky Community and
Technical College System director of international studies and
global partnerships are journeying overseas to help establish
an international nursing degree program in Nepal.
Dr.
Veazey called college officials last week to say that the delegation
had arrived safely and were doing well. Provost Dr. James Selbe
will be overseeing daily operations of the college while Dr.
Veazey is overseas.
Nepal
is one of the world's 10 poorest nations. Veazey said the college
hopes to provide long-term solutions to health care problems
through a sound medical education system instead of mission
trips or temporary clinics.
"To
start an associate nursing degree in Mexico and southeast Asia,
what an absolute opportunity to do that, to provide that kind
of health care to a country that's never had it," Veazey
said, adding that she is going to Nepal, not only representing
the college but also the Kentucky Community and Technical College
System (KCTCS). “We’re setting this up for the state
of Kentucky. And so, the students that we hope to bring back
will be placed in, not only this college, but other colleges
across Kentucky,” she said.
Scorsone
recommended that West Kentucky staff visit the Nepalese schools
after the college reached a similar agreement last year with
the University Autonoma Guadalajara in Mexico. Nursing students
from southeast Asia and Mexico will be able to transfer to WKCTC
for their last semester to earn an associate degree. The Nursing
Education International Partnerships and Global Studies program
will eventually be available at KCTCS sites in Hazard, Ashland
and Elizabethtown.
 Veazey
said the college is working with an organization called “Helping
Hands Health Education” to offer international students
in Nepal an associate degree. The nursing schools speak English,
which will eliminate a language barrier. As long as they meet
grade requirements, the first Mexican and Nepalese students
could arrive on the Paducah campus in fall 2006. Veazey said
the students will be able to pursue up to a master's degree
in the United States but will be required to return to Nepal
to work.
Colleges
in both countries offer baccalaureate degrees in nursing, Payne
said. But so few people earn the degree that there is a nursing
shortage in both countries similar to that in the United States.
The
trip will also include tours of clinics, schools and hospitals
in Pokhara and Katmandu and workshops providing local residents
education on basic nutrition, sanitation and personal care.
Veazey said she will also be looking for other educational opportunities
to offer the Nepalese, such as business or information technology
courses.
Payne
said nursing has predominately been a female profession for
a long time, but that role is changing.
“Our
roles in society as women have changed, but in these countries
we’re seeing that it’s very, very different,”
Payne said. “In Guadalajara, if you’re a nursing assistant
you make as much as a nurse, so there’s not any value in
salary and then men are not nurses and they certainly wouldn’t
think of doing that and when it comes to resources they give
the resources to the medical community and not the nursing community.”
Preparing
graduates for working with a diverse population in the global
economy is a KCTCS goal, Payne said. While there are a few Hispanic
students at the West Kentucky campus, there are no international
students.
"Our
students are going to have to be able to work with people from
all parts of the country, from all over the world,” Payne
said.
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