Patricia Hinchberger
California State University, USA
Title: Nursing Practice Around the Globe A Comparison: Cameroon West Africa and the United States
Biography
Biography: Patricia Hinchberger
Abstract
The perception of Global Health and nursing practice varies worldwide. As countries with limited resources begin to move toward improving care through standardization, there have been an increasing number of international collaborative educational training opportunities. A recent example of this type of collaboration occurred in the village of Bafut Cameroon where training for healthcare personnel was focused on Western standards of care, Western standard operating procedures, and facilitated by an American Nurse Educator. All newly hired personnel attended mandatory orientations provided by the Nurse Educator. Classes on job performance, patient confidentiality, and Code of Conduct were the primary concepts presented. During training, Participatory Action Research, Participant Observations, and an Ethnography worldview were used to assess willingness, resistance, or barriers to Western standards of practice. Themes identified related to cultural differences in the perception of healthcare and values associated with social norms and ideals. These identified themes seemed to prevented or delayed ongoing integration of newly learned standards.