Deborah Becker, PhD, ACNP, BC, CCNS, Cynthia Connolly, PhD, RN, PNP, FAAN, and Barbra Mann Wall, PhD, RN, FAAN were responsible for evaluating nursing courses, critiquing research projects, and reviewing the curriculum addressing whether the program’s objectives, goals, and outcomes were in line with a school aiming to become competitive globally.

 

Only eight percent of Saudi Arabia’s nurses are Saudi and the country needs more of its citizens to assume nursing roles and help set public health priorities, the researchers found. Dr. Becker, Dr. Connolly, and Dr. Mann Wall visited clinical sites, and interviewed students and program leaders in an effort to critique the nursing program using the same standards to which American nursing schools are held.

 

“It was an amazing opportunity to be completely immersed in another culture and to see both the similarities and differences between how nursing is performed there compared to how it’s done in the United States,” said Dr. Becker. “The administration at the College of Nursing provided open access to all of their faculty, nursing curriculum, students, and clinical sites. It was amazing to have that much access to their health care system.”

 

Opportunities for further collaboration between KKU and Penn Nursing are being explored.