New York University College of Nursing has been chosen as the Coordinating Center for a group of 17 Pan American Nurse and Midwifery Collaborating Centers (PANMCCs) of the World Health Organization PAHO region. Specifically, NYU College of Nursing Professor Madeline Naegle, director of the NYU WHO/PAHO Collaborating Center, will serve as chair of this coordinating center for the next two years, providing a voice for its joint concerns. NYU’s Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing will serve as a source of geriatric expertise to this group.
The Pan American Nursing and Midwifery Collaborating Centers (PANMCCs) meet annually to work together on similar position statements and projects. For example, they work together toward teaching best practices in mental health, aging, and midwifery, which can then be culturally adapted by nurses in Latin America. NYU will represent PANMCC within WHO’s Global Network of Collaborating Centers, based at Caledonian University in Glasgow, Scotland. This group works closely with the International Council for Nursing (ICN) and will represent Nursing at the World Health Assembly meeting in May 2006.
“Our work aims to increase the visibility of nurses and midwives, the largest group of care providers worldwide, in contribution to areas identified by the World Health Organization as needing development and emphasis,” says Professor Madeline Naegle, PhD, APRN-BC, FAAN. “In the coming years, the focus will continue to be on the international shortage of nurses and health providers generally.” The group participates in studying and making recommendations on the worldwide migration of nurses and on the levels of educational preparation of nurses.
The NYU Collaborating Center participates in a number of activities designed to share nursing knowledge and expertise with colleagues in Latin America, most significantly around care of older adults. Mathy Mezey, EdD, RN, FAAN, director of the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at NYU, participated on October 18, 2005, in a “Global Dialogue” planned in collaboration with PAHO and broadcast in videoconference format from the World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC, to eight Latin American countries. In the videoconference, she discussed the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing/American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s publication, Older Adults: Recommended Baccalaureate Nursing Competencies, which has been translated recently into Spanish.
NYU faculty will also participate in a conference of Latin American nurse educators in Concepción, Chile, from November 30 to December 1, 2005. Dr. Carolyn Auerhahn, director of the geriatric nurse practitioner program at NYU College of Nursing, will present a workshop on the geriatric competencies to nurse educators. “Although the geriatric competencies are not necessarily culturally congruent, they can be used as a starting point and adapted to regional needs,” says Dr. Naegle.
Additional activities of the collaborating center focus on research and technology. Professor Linda Mayberry will travel to Latin America in November 2005 to conduct a workshop on research strategies for Latin American nurse researchers. Susan Jacobs, an NYU librarian, will accompany Dr. Mayberry to provide instruction on the use of technologic resources. Projects like these are facilitated by relationships with other PANMCC members, increasing contributions to raise standards of nursing care in the Southern hemisphere.
At NYU, Eliana Horta and Bea Goodwin provide the Spanish-language bridge to Latin American programs, through teaching, consulting, and arranging exchange programs with Latin American hospitals and schools of nursing.
The College of Nursing at the College of Dentistry is located on New York University’s historic Greenwich Village campus in New York City. The College of Nursing is one of the leading nursing programs in the United States. The College offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing; Master of Arts and Post-Master’s Certificate Programs; and a Doctor of Philosophy in Research Theory and Development. For more information, visit www.nyu.edu/nursing.