464 ■ III: ROLE FUNCTIONS OF DOCTORAL ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE
My own experience with international and global partnerships through the DNP
program at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) are many and varied. The pri-
mary partnership has been with colleagues at University College Cork in Cork (UCC),
Ireland where I served as a Fulbright Scholar from 2007 to 2008. During that year and
the following 2 years, Professor Geraldine McCarthy and I designed the first Doctor of
Nursing (DN) program and modeled the course work after the DNP program at CWRU.
There have been three cohorts of student enrolled thus far, and Professor McCarthy
and I have continued to teach in the program and mentor students toward publica-
tion and global work. The students in each of the three cohorts were expected to be
knowledgeable about, and connected to, global nursing. In formal classes, students
were introduced to nurse leaders via Skype, during both the nursing theory and nurs-
ing leadership classes. One of the most significant outcomes of the leadership classes
from cohorts one and two was the publication of books on nurse leaders, with doc-
toral students interviewing the nurse leaders and contributing chapters based on these
interviews (McCarthy & Fitzpatrick, 2012, 2013). For many of the doctoral students this
was their first professional publication, and one that has the potential for replication in
other countries. It is our strong belief that no one should exit a doctoral program with-
out publishing their scholarly work, and it is the responsibility of faculty to mentor
students toward success in this endeavor. There are several additional publications that
provide evidence of success among UCC DN students and UCC and CWRU faculty
(Day, McCarthy, & Fitzpatrick, 2016; Day, Wills, McCarthy, & Fitzpatrick, 2010).
Another dimension of the collaboration, particularly relevant to the chapter by
Dreher and colleagues, is the study- abroad component of the CWRU DNP program in
which students are encouraged to build global experiences into their DNP practicum
objectives. Two U.S. experts in emergency nursing took advantage of this opportunity
and spent part of their practicum time at UCC, connecting to a leading nurse expert
in emergency care in Ireland, who at the time was a DN student at UCC. One of the
CWRU students and the UCC student (both of whom have now graduated) continue
to collaborate on research and professional practice specific to emergency nursing. Six
other CWRU DNP students have participated in course work at UCC as part of the
practicum requirements in their own doctoral program. All CWRU student participants
are expected to share their expertise with UCC students, delivering at least one formal
presentation. Most of the study- abroad experience, however, comes from the informal
networking that occurs between UCC and CWRU students.
Another dimension of the CWRU and UCC collaboration has been the conferences
held at UCC. CWRU DNP students have participated in research and theory conferen-
ces. This provides another opportunity to connect those with similar professional inter-
ests and has sparked additional collaborative ongoing research. Two prior collaborative
research projects have been published (Coffey et al., 2013, 2016; Weathers et al., 2015).
CWRU DNP students also have connected with colleagues in Hong Kong as part
of their DNP practicum. Two students traveled to a Hong Kong nursing conference
and presented their work to not only HKU DNP students but also nurse leaders from a
range of Hong Kong health care facilities. These two DNP students then traveled on to
the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Congress that was being held in Melbourne,
Australia, and had the opportunity to connect with global nurse leaders. These students
would describe this as the highlight of their DNP education, and continue their commit-
ment to working with colleagues from other countries.
An important recent outcome of the CWRU UCC collaboration has been the publi-
cation of two nursing theory books, with CWRU DNP and UCC DN students as chapter
authors (Fitzpatrick & McCarthy, 2014, 2016). Faculty from both institutions and PhD
students from UCC also have participated, those expanding the collegial relationships