My study abroad trip to Grenada was an eye-opening experience that helped me to see the world differently. Having only worked in American hospitals prior to this experience, I was amazed at how different the two countries are in regards to their approach to healthcare. American hospitals value the concept of time and want everyone to work efficiently. When I was in Grenada, the doctors and nurses valued the time they spent with the patients over being exactly on time. Due to their fluid concept of time, medications were not ordered at a specific hour but told to be administered in the morning. Shift change also happened an hour later than scheduled and the nurses were still paper charting as the new nurses started their shift due to having an abundance of patient interaction. Despite all the advancements that American hospitals have over the Grenadian hospitals, I saw a higher level of patient care and empathy in my experience in Grenada than I had ever experienced in America. While both methods of helping patients has its merits, I think it’s important to understand that the newest technology doesn’t always mean the patients are being better taken care of. In American we tend to think our methodology is superior to other countries but I believe that American hospitals can learn a lot from Grenada and other hospitals around the world.

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This experience has helped solidify that nursing is the profession I want to enter. Despite all of the long days we worked with our extremely busy schedules, I never once wanted to stop providing care. At the end of every day I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to touch people’s lives and was continually amazed at how this trip was helping to define my career path. The hands-on experience alone was helpful in developing my skills as nurse, but the other aspects of the trip such as communication and flexibility were also influential. Communicating with both patients and the healthcare team is a vital job of any nurse and this trip gave ample opportunities to educate patients on their health status and what they can do to improve their health. Flexibility was also a vital trait that I practiced over the course of this experience. Every day held a new challenge for us to overcome as team, whether it was having to improvise with the setup of an event or having more or less people than anticipated for certain aspects of the trip, we were constantly adapting to each new situation. These two skills along with the hands-on service learning have contributed to my development as a future nurse, and I will use them along with the knowledge of the importance of spending adequate time with my patients and incorporate them into how I provide care as a future nurse.  

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