Elder health care examined in Ireland short-term program

 
WMU group decked out in University of Ulster t-shirts

A spring trip to the Emerald Isle offered a keen opportunity to compare health care delivery to the elderly covered by national health care plans for 14 Western Michigan University graduate and undergraduate students majoring in occupational and speech therapy, nursing, and interdisciplinary health services. 

Program photo gallery

The 9-day trip in early March was founded and lead by WMU Occupational Therapy Professors Maureen Mickus and Carla Chase, in response to student demand for international experiences to augment their academic programs in the College of Health and Human Services. It was open to graduate students and undergraduate students within 15 credit hours of completing a bachelor’s degree.

Titled “International Perspectives on Care of Older Adults,” the three-credit-hour program explores the continuum of care for older people both in community and institutional settings to compare the United States’ system to the systems in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Mickus and Chase forged partnerships with the National University of Ireland, Galway and University of Ulster in Jordanstown (outside of Belfast) to foster faculty and student exchanges of knowledge and experiences.

“Both countries have a national health care system and they are facing some of the same challenges as the United States in providing support and care for older persons,” Chase said. “It’s also common there that most adult family members work full time, so there is often no one at home to take care of older relatives. The visit provided our students a good opportunity to compare and contrast health care systems.”

Students attended lectures at the National University of Ireland, Galway, which included an overview of the health care system and services for older adults. They also experienced in-depth visits to both private and public nursing homes in the area.

During their time at UU near Belfast, they attended lectures on disability advocacy, entrepreneurship, evidence-based practice, and participated in small-group discussions with Irish students. Both WMU and UU students gave oral presentations about their fieldwork experiences.

The program also included a full day conducting clinical fieldwork, primarily in hospitals and rehabilitation centers, and a workshop presented by AgeAction, a Dublin-based national advocacy organization for older adults.

“The students developed a richer sense of health systems and clinical services in Ireland and Northern Ireland, particularly as compared to the United States,” Mickus said. “One of the more powerful benefits from this trip was the tremendous sharing across disciplines—instances in which students developed a clearer understanding of the roles played by allied health professionals in fields other than their own.”

 Jamie Kazmirzack, a graduate student from Lansing majoring in occupational therapy, said spending a day shadowing an occupational therapy student from Northern Ireland was the capstone experience of the trip.

“My student partner and the therapists at the Elder Care Unit of Belfast City Hospital were very eager to answer my questions about their health care system,” Kazmirzack said. “They listened closely as I described my experiences working at the inpatient rehabilitation unit of a hospital in the United States. This opportunity helped me to see the similarities and differences in how our countries deliver occupational therapy services and was more powerful than anything I could have learned in a classroom.”

The interdisciplinary nature of the program was appreciated by Craig Bradfield, an OT graduate student from Kalamazoo. He also enjoyed the Irish people he met on the streets because they were “very friendly and helpful.”

“The opportunity to travel internationally was the most beneficial aspect of this trip,” Bradfield said. “I noticed difficulties in getting financial aid for medical care to be pretty universal.  Even in Europe, people have trouble getting help from their government. But the family support was better in Ireland than I’ve experienced with U.S. patients.”

Cultural tours were also arranged to aid the WMU group in learning more about the political, geographical and historical aspects of the two countries, including a visit to The Cliffs of Moher and the Burren near Galway, and the Giant’s Causeway, a geological formation of large columns of rock and salt, and a castle in Northern Ireland.

Dr. Agnes Shiel, director of the OT program at NUI, gave several lectures and her staff arranged all transportation and accompanied the students on the nursing home visits. Patricia McClure, associate head of school, School of Sciences at UU, and her staff also gave lectures, assisted with housing arrangements and coordinated clinical placements for WMU students at various hospitals and rehabilitation centers throughout Belfast.

“In both settings, Belfast and Galway, our university hosts went to great lengths to ensure the success of our visit, including obtaining approval from the local health boards for our students to participate in clinical activities,” Mickus said. “Carla and I look forward to taking our second group to Ireland in spring 2009.”

Brett Berquist, executive director of international programs at the Haenicke Institute for Global Education, said the College of Health and Human Services is working with the institute to develop an array of similar international programs for their disciplines utilizing an innovative model that combines traditional classroom studies with service learning in professional settings.

Program profile:  International Perspectives on Care of Older Adults