Focus on culturally competent care

SPOKANE– Internationally known scholar and women’s health advocate, Dr. Afaf I. Meleis, will be the featured speaker at the 2006 Cleveland Visiting Scholar events hosted by the Washington State University Intercollegiate College of Nursing Sept. 14 in Spokane.

Meleis is the Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Professor of Nursing and Sociology, and Director of the school’s WHO Collaborating Center for Nursing and Midwifery Leadership. She is the author of more than 150 articles in academic and medical journals.

She is also the author of an award-winning book, “Theoretical Nursing: Development and Progress” and “Women’s Work, Health, and Quality of Life,” and co-author of “Caring for Women Cross Culturally.”  In addition, Meleis is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, as well as honorary doctorates and distinguished and honorary professorships around the world.

A sought-after keynote speaker for national and international conferences on women’s health and development, disparities in healthcare, and international health, Meleis will draw on her clinical experiences and research in the Middle East, Latin America and the U.S. Her lectures will address the global risks faced by women in an unsafe world and strategies that could begin to make a woman’s world more secure.

“When scientists, clinicians, and consumers gather together to share their work, their vision and their hopes for equitable health care for women, they create an agenda for quality care for women,” said Meleis. “My dream is that after each of these gatherings, their shared voice reverberates to eliminate aggression and violence globally.”
 
Meleis will lead two separate presentations designed to engage students, faculty, healthcare professionals and the general public.

She will speak to nursing students and faculty on “Safe Womanhood in an Unsafe World: Global Issues for Women,” from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing campus room 156  located at 2917 W. Fort George Wright Drive.

A second presentation titled “Culturally Competent Care: Challenges & Opportunities,” will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. at the WSU Riverpoint Campus Auditorium, located in the Phase 1 Building, off of East Spokane Falls Blvd.  During this discussion, Meleis will address the need for cultural competent scholarship in nursing. The latter presentation is for healthcare professionals and is open to the public. The post-lecture reception will be held from 6:15 to 7 p.m. in the Gallery.

Meleis warns that “culture is only one component of what defines a human being; defining nursing clients as cultural beings may be as reductionist as defining them as biological or physiological beings.”

Both presentations will be broadcast via Academic Media Services (AMS) to sites throughout the state including Pullman, Spokane, Tri-Cities, Vancouver, Walla Walla and Yakima.

Now in its eighth year, the annual Cleveland Visiting Scholar event brings nursing scholars with a national perspective and expert knowledge to Spokane to discuss issues related to nursing education, practice, and professional development.

The annual Cleveland Visiting Scholar program began in 1998 to honor WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing Dean Emerita Dr. Thelma Cleveland. The event is sponsored by the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing and is made possible through the gifts and financial contributions of a network of community and individual donors committed to quality healthcare and higher education.

Established in 1968, the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing is the nation’s first, oldest and most comprehensive nursing education consortium.

The College of Nursing offers baccalaureate, graduate and professional development course work to nursing students enrolled in Spokane through its four consortium partners, Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University, Washington State University and Whitworth College. The same programs are also offered in several communities across the state including Yakima, Vancouver, Tri-Cities and Walla Walla using WSU’s Academic Media Services’ interactive video system, as well as videoconferencing, video streaming and web-based instruction.

As the largest college of nursing in the Pacific Northwest, the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing is currently educating more than 900 upper-division undergraduate and graduate students, and each year graduates more entry-level nurses than any other educational institution in the state. In addition, its faculty researchers are contributing significantly to the knowledge base of the profession and of healthcare.

For more information about the Intercollegiate College of Nursing, please visit the Web site at nursing.wsu.edu.