July 27, 2005

10 Korean Nursing Students Visit CUA to Learn about American Health Care

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ten undergraduate nursing students and a nursing professor from The Catholic University of Korea are getting a taste of American medicine while spending two weeks at CUA. The nurses arrived here from Seoul on July 25 and will return Aug. 5.

Nalini Jairath, dean of the CUA School of Nursing, and Mary Paterson, assistant dean of undergraduate programs (from top left), welcome nurses from The Catholic University of Korea to The Catholic University

of America for two weeks’ study of American health care.

The objectives of the trip are for nurses to become familiar with professional nursing practices in the United States and to understand the general health-care system here, says Mary Paterson, assistant dean of undergraduate programs at the School of Nursing. Paterson, who is helping coordinate the nurses’ activities, has planned a full schedule. “We’re allowing only one day for jet lag,” Paterson says.

The nurses attend morning seminars on such topics as mental health nursing and the role of nursing in education, administration and policy. During the afternoons they visit area institutions, including the National Institutes of Health, Washington Hospital Center and the American Nurses Association, as well as traditional tourist spots in the nation's capital.

“The School of Nursing has a global reputation for mentoring students for future leadership positions,” says Nalini Jairath, dean of the School of Nursing. “The current visit by students from The Catholic University of Korea continues our legacy and is an important collaboration between two very different Catholic universities with a common goal of improving the health of all.” Jairath hopes the visit leads to other exchange activities.

“I’m looking forward to learning about American health-care activities,” says Sister Salesia Sungsuk Han, a professor in the College of Nursing at The Catholic University of Korea, who has been in the United States twice before. “I’d like to visit all kinds of hospitals, especially big ones.”

It is the first visit for most of the nursing students, however, and to make them feel at home there are rice cookers in the fourth floor lounge of Flather Hall, where they’re staying on campus, and plenty of kimchi, the spicy Korean cabbage dish, on hand. Yeon-Soo Jang, a doctoral student of nursing at CUA, is translating the lectures from English to Korean.

MEDIA: For more information, contact Katie Lee or Anne Cassidy in the CUA Office of Public Affairs at 202-319-5600.

The Catholic University of America School of Nursing has long been one of the nation’s leading nursing schools. Founded in 1932, the school has graduated more than 8,000 nurses, many of whom now hold top leadership positions in hospitals and health-care settings, academia, the military and government. Offering bachelor’s, master’s and doctor of science degrees, the School of Nursing is accredited by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission. It partners with more than 130 clinical agencies in the Washington, D.C. area to provide students with a broad and diverse exposure to nursing, multicultural health-care practices and state-of-the-art research.

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Any questions or comments? cu a-public-affairs@cua.edu

Revised: 7/28/2005