An important goal of the International Home Care Nurses Organization (IHCNO) is to communicate, connect, and collaborate with nurses providing care to patients in their homes around the world, creating an international community of nurses who spur one another to excellence and professionalism in home-based nursing practice. One way home healthcare nurses (HHNs) may be able to connect and collaborate with nurses from other countries is through the Fulbright Scholarship Program. The Fulbright Program is designed to promote international understanding and cooperation and to expand and strengthen relationships between the people of the United States and citizens of other nations. It promotes collaborative education and research through the exchange of persons, knowledge, and skills, including in home-based nursing services.
Some Fulbright scholarships are expressly for U.S. citizens (e.g., U.S. Scholars Program); others are only for students and scholars of other countries (e.g., Visiting Scholars Program). Over 155 countries, from Albania to Zimbabwe, participate in the Fulbright Program. Some scholarships are for graduate students, and others are for experienced educators and/or postdoctoral researchers. The scholarships usually range from several months to a full year. Here we focus on two of the many types of Fulbright scholarships.
The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program (https://fulbrightscholars.org/) enables experienced U.S. scholars and professionals to lecture and/or conduct postdoctoral research in over 135 countries. Most of these grants are requested by foreign colleges and universities; some are for specific topics or problems, whereas others allow applicants to propose and design their own projects. (See https://fulbrightscholars.org/awards/search; use filter to search for "nursing".) These grants are usually for a semester or a full academic year in one host country. The Fulbright Global Scholar Program (https://fulbrightscholars.org/award/fulbright-global-scholar-award) is a special category of the U.S. Scholar Program, which allows the applicant to visit two or three countries in different world regions for education, research, or professional development projects. Fulbright scholars may be asked to participate in diverse academic, professional, and civic activities.
The Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program (https://fulbrightscholars.org/non-us-scholars/fulbright-visiting-scholar-program) enables foreign scholars to lecture or conduct postdoctoral research for up to a year at U.S. colleges and universities. Each year about 900 foreign scholars from over 100 countries are selected for postdoctoral research that spans from an academic semester to a full academic year. Participants must have a doctoral degree and sufficient proficiency in the English language to be eligible for the program.
How can HHNs participate in the Fulbright Program to advance home-based nursing throughout the world? Suppose an American nursing school professor applies for a Global Scholar Award to teach and examine home-based nursing systems in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, comparing them to one another and the United States to identify best practices. The nurse publishes the findings and shares them with the IHCNO, which helps dissemniate the findings to its network of HHNs around the world. Another nurse from a country with an underdeveloped healthcare system contacts the IHCNO to connect with nurses from well-established home healthcare programs. The nurse's application to the Visiting Scholars Fulbright Program proposes studying American home care agencies to design a framework for advancing home-based nursing services in the nurse's home country.
Discover how to apply to these programs at https://fulbrightscholars.org/us-scholar-awards#eligibility. Although these scholarships are competitive, applicants with compelling project proposals, who demonstrate leadership, and the flexibility and adaptability to interact successfully with the host community, have an advantage in securing a fellowship. As the mission of the IHCNO and the Fulbright Scholarship Programs are complementary, HHNs can consider applying for these scholarships to advance home-based nursing.
Risk of premature death in adulthood influenced by patterns of early childhood adversity
NIH: Poverty, combined with other types of adversity in early childhood, is associated with greater chances of premature death in adulthood, compared to other adverse childhood experiences, according to a study of more than 46,000 people by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. Compared to children who did not experience early life adversity, childhood poverty combined with crowded housing was associated with a 41% higher risk for premature death, and early poverty combined with separation from a parent was associated with a 50% increase in premature death. Those who experienced parental harshness and neglect had a 16% higher risk of premature death, and those who experienced family instability had a 28% higher risk for premature death. The researchers developed five classifications of early childhood adversity:
* Low adversity: unlikely to have experienced any significant childhood adverse events (48% of participants)
* Parental harshness and neglect: likely to have experienced such adverse events as parental physical or emotional harshness and physical neglect (4% of participants)
* Family instability: likely to have experienced two or more changes in their parents' marital status, parental divorce or separation, frequent changes in residence, a parent's or sibling's death, or foster care (9% of participants)
* Poverty and crowded housing: likely to have experienced poverty and crowded housing conditions (21% of participants)
* Poverty and parental separation: likely to have experienced poverty, welfare receipt, parental divorce or separation, and marital and residential changes (19% of participants)