Dr. Earl Francis Sumile of the College of Nursing was one of the four international faculty members who handled the summer course “Exploring Global Patterns of Health and Illness” in Duke University, North Carolina, USA, from August 8-25, 2018.
Sumile delivered a lecture on the utilisation of the grounded theory of gaining control in health empowerment among communities in the Philippines and also facilitated students’ learning by guiding them in their evidence based (EBP) project. This program was attended by students coming from USA, Barbados, China, Japan, Oman, Philippines, and Taiwan.
Likewise, 7 Thomasian BS Nursing students, accompanied by Asst. Prof. Ma. Victoria Bongar, represented the country in this annual event. The 2-week course provided a multi-cultural learning experience for the participants employing interactive lectures-seminars, site visits (hospitals, agencies etc), and group work. The sessions were divided in to 5 themes: Global health trends, the burden of non-communicable diseases, human rights and health, global mental health initiatives, and social aspects of health and healthcare delivery. Highlights of the activities include a simulation of handling patients with Ebola in the world renowned center for nursing discovery laboratory of Duke and high impact lectures from experts around the world, like the Dean of Yale University, Dr. Ann Kurth gave a powerful lecture on planetary health and global nursing leadership; Dr. Tony Moody shared breakthroughs on his work of developing an HIV vaccine. And Victor Madrigal-Borloz, a member of the UN High Commission on Human Rights delivered an address on the essence of health and human rights.
Distinguished as 2018 number 1 Nursing School in the USA, Duke University has been a partner institution of the University of Santo Tomas since 2015, collaborating on research and facilitating student-faculty exchange.