448 ■ III: ROLE FUNCTIONS OF DOCTORAL ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE
the program was successful at arranging a full day off campus at another host insti-
tution (Dublin Trinity College, Kingston University/ St. George’s of London, and the
University of Brighton). As mentioned previously, since Drexel operates on a 10- week
quarter system, students attend class on campus in weeks 1 and 10 only, and weeks 3
and 4 are typically entirely abroad. Thus, the students are not on campus in Philadelphia
for the other 6 weeks and all 30- class hours in the quarter are met using this model.
As Drexel’s DrNP program relies on its own doctoral faculty traveling abroad to
teach, network, and act as semiformal guides for student activities (undergraduate stu-
dents must be chaperoned and supervised to a larger degree than graduate students
to avoid risks to the university), there must be a separate budget for faculty expenses
(housing, food, and travel). The Drexel DrNP program typically sent two or three fac-
ulty abroad each year with each class of students. For the fourth annual program in
London in 2010, there was a new day program at the University of Brighton with their
professional doctoral students and faculty, and this was the program’s first experience
with Drexel DrNP students networking with other international students in profes-
sional nursing and other health- related doctoral programs.^4
Courses taught abroad were selected by the department chair as part of the annual
nursing teaching schedule procedures. Doctoral nursing courses were purposefully
rotated so that a diverse set of faculty could take part in the experience. However, there
was no standard procedure for faculty selection (e.g., by seniority), the philosophy of
the department chair was mostly to use the experience to reward highly productive fac-
ulty who had been awarded tenure, received a major grant, or had exceptionally high
teaching evaluations in the doctoral program. If the international mission of a university
or college is important, then annual requests to fund this particular faculty activity can
become part of the normal budget process.
■ THE DrNP- IN- LONDON PROGRAM: A FACULTY PERSPECTIVE
London is a cosmopolitan historical city rich in health care and public health history.
Therefore, setting up meaningful extracurricular adventures with opportunities for learn-
ing with FIE was easy. The study- abroad experience in London began the first weekend
upon arrival. Since this is a doctoral study- abroad program, a decision to eschew the
typical dorm experience used for undergraduates was made, and the doctoral students
were housed instead in an affordable hotel/ apartment in Kensington within easy walk-
ing distance to all FIE facilities. After an overnight Friday transcontinental flight, a very
light day- 1 schedule was recommended. Students were given a brief late afternoon ori-
entation to the FIE facilities and a quick overview of the neighborhood. On day 2, both
students and faculty attended a guided walking tour of the Kensington neighborhood,
including an intriguing view of the homes of John Stuart Mill and Robert Browning, as
well as Kensington Palace and Hyde Park. A Sunday afternoon guided coach tour of
London gave the group (students and faculty) an overview of greater London, including
some of the beautiful historical sites such as Westminster Abby, Tower of London, and
House of Parliament. London is the home of the Florence Nightingale Museum which
holds a unique collection of artifacts clearly depicting the life of this notable woman, and
students were provided tickets to attend this museum on their own. During a Medical
Walking Tour (especially designed for us by a historian at FIE) later in the program,
students and faculty covered the streets of London’s medical quarter and beyond, giv-
ing us views of the old hospitals for sick children and poor immigrants. A day trip to
Cambridge granted a view of an ancient university city with college buildings of all