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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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