My Academic Life in Jordan

Although my Fulbright proposal had been to teach Quality and Safety in the Clinical Setting or Global Nursing, I am currently co-teaching Qualitative Research Methods to doctoral students.  While that is my only official assignment for this semester, already there have been many opportunities to be involved with the nursing department.  One of my favorite activities is participation in the formation of an honor society that will later become a chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI), the Honor Society for Nursing after the one year required waiting period.  I have been included in the planning meetings as we prepare for the induction of the founding members.  Theta at Large chapter of STTI, the chapter to which I belong in the US, has generously agreed to provide some start-up funding for the University of Jordan chapter. 

Last week I was asked to guest lecture an undergraduate nursing class on the Joint Commission national patient safety goals.  Many of the concerns for patient safety that we have in the US are the same as the ones that the Jordanian students identified.  Patient falls seem to be less of a problem in Jordan, most likely because it is common for family members to stay with patients.

The Nursing School Building

note the numbers are also in Arabic script

(click on the pictures to enlarge them)

A few weeks ago I attended a video conference with Lund University in Sweden.  The University of Jordan has an excellent video conferencing facility.  Masters students at both universities made presentations about their thesis work and the audience at each site asked the students questions and made suggestions.  After the program concluded, the presenting students and the faculty were guests at a lovely luncheon served in a faculty restaurant on campus.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could have our Curry College masters students showcase their clinical projects in an international forum such as this?

I have been asked to co-supervise a doctoral student in his dissertation work.  He is at the proposal stage, planning a study of the best method to improve the knowledge and skills of nurses for advanced cardiac life support.  Each draft that I have read refines his study.  I can’t imagine how hard it must be for him to do this in English.  In addition to methodological suggestions, I am able to work with him to improve his writing.

Peer Tutoring

One morning I attended the thesis proposal hearing of a Master’s student.  The process here is that she does the proposal with the supervision of one faculty member.  She does not interact with the three person committee (one external member and two UJ nursing faculty members) until the hearing.  The committee had read the proposal and were there to provide direction for her study.  After she gave her presentation, the committee quizzed her.  While they were polite, I thought that they were very tough on her.  I also thought that her supervisor should have suggested many of the changes prior to the hearing as the project was much too complex for a master’s thesis.  After well more than an hour of grilling her, she was excused from the room while the committee discussed the proposal.  She did finally receive a limited approval, with revisions required to be read by one committee member prior to full approval.  Her supervisor took notes and will work with her to incorporate the suggestions.  And then in true Jordanian fashion, the tray of sweets that the student had brought was passed around.  Although I have not met with the student, I was asked to review her proposal and add my suggestions.  Having recently spoken with her supervisor, I think she is still recovering from her traumatic day.  She handled herself well under the interrogation, but still needs some time to re-group and refine her proposal.

Studying

I have also been invited to a class where two Master’s students gave a presentation on the adaptation of Orem’s Theory to Jordanian nursing.  They were very professional, with PowerPoint and other visual aids.  Now I have been asked to help the professor and the two students turn this into a manuscript, Insha’Allah.

One of the bigger projects that I am working on is a research study of Jordanian nurses health promotion activities related to smoking cessation.  I am doing this in conjunction with my teaching partner and the Dean.  The fun part is that we are asking our doctoral students to critique our proposal and to help us develop our questions for the focus groups.

Doctoral Students

The doctoral students are a delightful group.  Only one is a full time student.  The others are doing what many of us have done – juggling doctoral studies and jobs and families.  The last few weeks they have been doing presentations on different qualitative research methodologies.  After their Power Point presentations, they lead the class in critiquing an article that is based on the methodology that they presented.  While our class is in English, sometimes there is a burst of Arabic when they don’t have the English words to express their thoughts.  

Smaller activities have included reviewing manuscripts for faculty and reviewing and revising some IRB documents.  Perhaps the best part, though, are the casual conversations with faculty who stop by my office to chat.  I learn so much from them, and hope that the learning is mutual.  All in all, my Fulbright experiences are definitely living up to my expectations.  I am hoping that sometime in the next few weeks I will get an opportunity to go to the clinical setting with a faculty member and to visit the nursing labs as well.

 Sculpture at the Entrance to the University of Jordan Campus

a coffee pot is symbolic of welcome