452 ■ III: ROLE FUNCTIONS OF DOCTORAL ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE
■ THE DrNP- IN- DUBLIN PROGRAM: A FACULTY PERSPECTIVE
In London, students learned to love the city. In Dublin, students learned to love and appre-
ciate the people of Ireland. Initially, many of the students were less than enthusiastic about
having their study- abroad experience in Ireland. They wanted to go to a country that they
perceived as culturally sophisticated and known for its theatre and museums. Instead,
they were introduced to a country that had its own charm, unique culture, and rich his-
tory. The program’s study tour guide in 2009, Colin Hogan, was an American graduate
student from Chicago studying at the Dublin School of Business. Colin helped students
and faculty navigate the city as well as shared his experiences as an international student.
Again after a short Saturday orientation, the second day in Ireland began with a
medical walking tour conducted by Pat Liddy, a well- known Dublin historian, author,
and artist who has developed a unique walking tour service for Dublin. Indeed, we were
the first medical walking tour that Mr. Liddy ever conducted. On this tour alone stu-
dents learned about the Irish Healthcare System, the potato famine, religious oppression,
women’s health care, and the political and religious landscape’s effect on childbearing
rights, as well as had a visit to the Rotunda Hospital which specializes in women’s health
and midwifery services. The hospital, founded in 1745, was the original Dublin Lying- In
Hospital and maternity training hospital, the first of its kind in Europe. There the students
had an opportunity to have a question and answer session with the nursing administrator
on call, and began to get a glimpse of nursing education and nursing practice in Ireland.
Two doctoral courses were offered during the Dublin study- abroad experience: Legal
Issues Confronting Nursing Faculty and Administrators and Qualitative Methods for
Clinical Nursing Inquiry. Irish guest lecturers were invited to the classes to present the
“Irish Perspective” on assigned topics and readings. The legal issues course used a case-
based approach to examine the multitude of legal and ethical issues that confront the con-
temporary nursing faculty member in the classroom, in clinical settings, or in situations
in their professional role as a faculty member. A lecturer from the University of Limerick
discussed basic Irish nursing education from both a historical and current perspective.
Students and faculty learned that Ireland moved swiftly to the bachelor of science in nurs-
ing (BSN) entry only in the 1990s, and unlike the United States, undergraduate nursing
students specialize early on in their education in one of five specialties: general population,
intellectual disabilities, psychiatric mental health, midwifery, and child nursing.
The program also consisted of a day at Trinity College School of Nursing and
Midwifery, which provided an opportunity to interact with their doctoral students and
faculty, and also to hear a lecture on our host country’s health system, always an inte-
gral part of our program. Drexel students attended a presentation on the PhD Program
in nursing and midwifery outlining the school’s research resources, and they attended
a PhD proposal defense. Trinity students heard a similar Drexel DrNP program pres-
entation. All students were then able to compare and contrast institutional research
infrastructure, including release time, research support, and incentives, as well as the
differences related to research start- up packages and salary incentives, which were
greater for Drexel. Although doctoral nursing education was relatively new to Trinity
College, the institution had a wide and historic international legacy, educating both
Oscar Wilde and James Joyce, among others.
Trinity College provided a wealth of guest scholars for our qualitative methods
course and a wider discussion of graduate nursing education in Ireland. Guest lecture
topics included:
- Ethical considerations in qualitative research — using a study on women’s experi-
ences of carrying a fetus with an abnormality as an exemplar