Basic Information

Full Name: Rachel Marie Cameron

UC email: camerorm@mail.uc.edu
College: Nursing
Major: Nursing
Title of project: International Clinical
Thematic Area: Community Engagement
Expected Start Date: January 2017
Expected End Date: January 2017
Abstract
In January 2017, my goal is to take an international clinical trip to Tanzania. This trip is
primarily for nursing students who take a two week-long trip to Haiti (or another third world
country) to do the amount of work that would go into one semesters work of a clinical into one
week. In this week, I will be doing the work of a primary nurse in a hospital in a hospital in
Tanzania in a very concentrated amount of time. This early into the project, there is not an
itinerary, but as the project gets closer to the start date and I get approved to go on it, the
itinerary will be provided and I will share that with you as soon as I get it. This project is very
important to me because it combines two things that I really want to do; helping people as a
nurse and studying abroad. I will get to help people who dont have access to quality medical
care, and I want to do whatever I can to help them.
Throughout the project, for reflection I will include a daily journal of everything that Im doing.
This journal will include every medical procedure I preform and aspects of the hospital as well as
engaging in the community, and how I feel about the differences between life in Haiti and life in
the US. I can include pictures and stories and specific descriptions about the comings and goings
that occur during these crucial two weeks. This project will well exceed the 75-90 hours required
for an honors self-design project.
Before I leave for Tanzania, I plan on doing a lot of research for what life is like for people I this
country. The culture, food, and traditions are all different from what I know in my society. To
really make this a community engagement project I need to know all about this culture, which I
want to do, because thats half the reason Im going is to find out what life is like in a place that
is not at all like my own.
Connection to Learning Outcomes within an Honors Thematic Area

1. Possesses awareness of purpose of service, including need for reciprocity, understanding

of social issues, and ability to see those issues from multiple perspectives.
Tanzania is a third world country, which means that it has a very high poverty rate and low
access to medical care. This being the case, my being there will hopefully contributes to
some improvement in some peoples personal experience in health care where they dont
have access to much else. I want my purpose there to make a difference in peoples lives,
whether it be giving them a flu shot that they desperately need or talking to someone about
what their life is like and making a new friend.
Living in the US, I hear a lot about third world countries and how poor quality of life some
people have there, but I have never been to anywhere like that, so I really want an
opportunity to be able to learn and have a new understanding about what it means to be in an
area like that. Meeting new people from this area and talking to them is going to be one of
my main goals while Im there, and I hope that talking to multiple people will give me the
chance to see what its like living there from all people. Thats an advantage that I hope
happens working in a hospital; all kinds of people will need to go there, and that means that I
can communicate with people from all places and social standings of the country.
2. Participates in community and understands own role as citizen of community.
Working in the hospital is only part of the opportunity that I am being presented with. Its not
easy to have a chance to go to someplace that has a completely different culture than
America, and one of my biggest goals is to understand what the citizens of that country do
differently and to get a more well-rounded understanding of how different parts of the world
are like. I think that having a better understanding of how other parts of the world work will
give me a better understanding of how my society works, or at least itll give me a new
respect or understanding for my and other societies.
Connection to Goals and Academic Theory
A. How does this experience contribute to your future personal, academic, or
professional goals?
Like I said in the part previous to this, I feel that traveling and living in other parts of the
word for a decent amount of time makes you a more understanding and well-rounded
citizen, which is what I want to be. Additionally, it is always my goal (a daily goal in my
life) to get to know new people and talk with people who I may not have normally
crossed paths with. This trip gives me the chance to meet all kinds of people where I get
to not only help them, but hopefully get to know them on a more personal level and know
what their lives are like, which is a critical part of community engagement.
Academically, itll be helpful because it will take care of an entire semesters worth of
clinicals that I wont have to take in a hospital around the Cincinnati area. It will also
give me a lot of hands on experience, which will help in my future clinicals at UC and

give me a lot of learning there. Professionally, having a diverse understanding of people

and culture will always be helpful in a medical field because we will be treating all kinds
of people in our profession. It will give me experience towards different diseases and
problems that may not be as prevalent in the US, but could still happen that might be
more common in different countries. Also, just learning how to communicate with people
who might not speak English, or are from very different backgrounds will be extremely
helpful in my field.
B. . Name 2-3 specific theories and/or readings you will use to prepare or gain
background knowledge for your project. Explain how/why you chose your resources
and how they will inform your project. Provide citations, as appropriate. Your selfdesigned project advisor(s) can lend their expertise and help you brainstorm
relevant resources.
Because this is just a proposal for now, I do not have any specific resources that I would
be using for my project, but if this time comes, I will be using several journals and books
about Tanzanian culture. Additionally, I will be using several sources about medical
treatments that are more common to use in third world countries that are not as common
in the US. I will also likely be looking at journals at other students experiences with this
trip to make me more prepared for what will be going on.
Initiative, Independence, and/or Creativity
My unique participation in this project will be bringing my personality and skill to the
hospital. I will be personally responsible for being one of the primary nurses for a patient
and will have a lot of personal responsibility for the patients in a hospital that I will
personally be contributing to the care of. Additionally, I want to make myself unique in
the hospital by being able to connect with my patients, and get to know them as more
than just patients in a hospital, that way I can learn about their culture and personality as
well. As far as previous experience goes, I have not worked a lot in hospitals yet,
however between now and the time that I leave for my trip I will have more clinical
experiences that I have done earlier done already and Ill also have volunteered at either
the West Chester Childrens Hospital or the West Chester Childrens Hospital so that I
have more medical experience ready to go for the trip.
My initiative and involvement will be more unique than others because I will have done a
lot of research on the culture and special procedures done in Tanzania that prepares me
for this trip. Additionally, because me learning objective in this project is community
engagement, I will have a special focus in learning about the culture and getting involved
with the people rather than just focusing on the clinical side of things.
I have demonstrated initiative by first of all applying for the trip to begin with; the trip is
not mandatory for students, so just by applying and participating in it I have
demonstrated initiative. Additionally, once all of my research is done, that is initiative to

learn about the culture before actually going to Tanzania, so this way I will have a little
bit of background experience already.
Reflection
Throughout my trip, I will be writing a daily journal to keep tract of everything that has
happened and to reflect on them. I will include in this journal whatever medical
procedures I will be taking part of in the actual clinical portion of the trip and how well I
thought I did in them-or anything that I did wrong-and reflect on my thoughts about how
I can improve for the next one. I will also make note in these reflections of all the doctors
and fellow nurses that I meet and what they teach me and how I felt about them. I will
also document what kinds of events I do in the community and how I feel about all of the
new experiences I have. I will also reflect and include descriptions on the kinds of food
and culture differences there are in the community. In this journal, I want to also include
lots of pictures that capture the kinds of things that Im doing in the hospital and to
become part of their community for a little while.
Dissemination
Because I want others to learn from this experience as much as I will, I will put this in my
learning portfolio as a digital representation of my journal, as well as include and album
for all of my photos with captions and explanations of what is going on in each scene. I
also hope to put some parts of my journal on the UC nursing website, so that other
students know what kinds of things that they will have an opportunity to do and what
they should expect out of a trip like this. I also have hopes to publish my journal onto a
blog when I come back (I expect to have little to no access to internet while Im there, but
if for some reason I do have internet while Im there, I will definitely post it while there)
so that anyone who wants to can look up what a clinical experience in Tanzania is like.
Project Advisor
Julie McCullough
Coord Spec Proj/Programs
226 Proctor Hall
(513)558-0903
Julie McCullough is the freshman counselor for nursing and has many students who went
through the same experience as I did, so not only is she very involved in the nursing
program, but she is also very experienced in whatever questions that I may have about the
trip itself and all of the medical aspects that I will encounter.
Budget

As of yet, the price of this trip has not been released, so I cannot request a budget that
can be funded for. However, much like a study abroad trip, there is an associated cost that
comes with this project that funding from the honors department would be much
appreciated for.