Skip to main content

So, You Want a Nursing Career in Global Health - How to get Started

I've worked in or been on research studies that cover 30 countries to date. With that global experience, I frequently do lectures about global health issues at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Millenials want to get out there and see the world and Gen X and Boomers are looking for meaningful career changes. The theme is common: They want to help the less fortunate in other countries. It's not to say they don't want to help the less fortunate in their own country; I think it's become something of seeing the consistency of what poverty does to people and the health consequences.

With all that in mind, want to know: How do I build a career in global health as a nurse?

First question I ask people is: Do you like camping?

Surprising question? Not really if you've spent time in the field. Most places where there is a critical need for health services and capacity building efforts don't have things like regular running water, consistent electricity, or comfortable places to sleep. If you don't like discomfort, don't do global health.

Once we're past that question, then come the career practicalities. International non-governmental organizations (NGO), the biggest employer of nurses working in global health, like nurses to have a solid set of critical thinking and clinical skills before they hire them. Generally, two years of med-surg or emergency experience will do fine. ICU isn't actually great preparation for global health work because there's too much technology and resources. You have to be able to work without resources and, sometimes, in highly uncontrolled environments. ICU is the opposite of that, so not great preparation.

It is important to note that most NGOs will look more favorably upon you if you've actually been out of your home country before. The last thing any organization wants is someone who committed to 6 months of field work and suddenly finds they don't like it or it's not what they expected. That costs them and their projects lots of time and effort that often cannot be recuperated. So, if you haven't got a passport yet, you'll need to use it.

Another recommendation I make, and one way to get out of the country, is that students try to do a volunteer trip for 2-3 weeks somewhere. Organizations like Unite for Sight have great short term, supervised volunteer experiences where you can try on global health work and see if it is a good fit for you.

One thing you should NEVER do is pay lots of money for a global health experience. What I mean by that is that you shouldn't pay huge additional administrative fees to go observe or gain experience. There are cheaper ways to get exactly the same experience. So pay close attention to the reviews people leave about those programs.

So, you've got a place to get started and can start making a plan. In future posts, I'll cover things like financial planning for when you're heading abroad and long term career development.

Good luck!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

There Are Other Masters Degrees Besides a Nurse Practitioner - Part I

It strikes me that many students and nurses do not seem to know about the "other" masters degree options for nurses.  Everyone seems to want to be a nurse practitioner these days.  Now, that's great news for the primary care provider shortage, but we need nurses with masters degrees who can work in other positions and have other skill sets. Let's review the other masters degrees in nursing.  Nearest and dearest to my own heart is Nursing Education.  Remember that really cool clinical instructor you had in your entry-level nursing program --that could be you!  Do you like precepting new hires?  Are you the person on your unit who unofficially keeps everyone up-to-date on the latest evidence?  Do you really enjoy patient teaching, whether in the hospital or community setting?  Do you just like to teach?  Nursing education is the right masters for you.  Skills learned in a nursing education masters cannot be learned on the job.  Cur...

Is it time to get your PhD in Nursing or Midwifery?

 Over the years, I've written a lot about pursuing a PhD in nursing and I'm including midwives because we need more PhD prepared midwives too.  Getting a PhD is a great way to address the problems you've seen on the frontlines of COVID-19, another way to address the social injustices of racism and discrimination on health outcomes, and to make your voice heard by the decision-makers. A third of the 1% of nurses with PhDs will retire in the next five years so we need people to take their place. We cannot lose our voices in all the places where nurses and midwives with PhDs work. Here's a compilation of the posts I've written about getting a PhD and the things to think about as you figure out where you want to apply. PhD or DNP?   This is where many people start when trying to decide on their doctoral-level career advancement. This post has my two cents on the topic. Should you work as a nurse before getting a PhD?   There's a lot of opinions out there on this sub...

Turnover in Nursing Staff at the Unit Level: The Single Best Indicator of Manager Performance?

Recently I had lunch with a former student who was passing through town. Lisa graduated a little over two years ago and was one of the lucky ones who found a job fairly quickly. What was most interesting about our conversation was the turnover rate on her unit. In 15 months, 15 nurses have left. The most recent was a group of five experienced night shift nurses, the kind any manager is loathe to lose. They left, according to the student, because they were tired of how they were treated.  Lisa is now the most experienced person on night shift at two years out of school. The loss of 15 nurses on one unit has also cost the organization nearly a million dollars. In an era of cost tightening, that is a steep price. Acknowledging that this is only a report from one person, there is still something that rings true in her story: Well managed patient care units do not have high turnover rates of staff. So let's think about what constitutes turnover in nursing staff and it's causes. G...

Translate