Lee-Ellen Kirkhorn
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, USA
Title: Co-creation of a Domestic Intercultural Immersion between Indigenous People from the Wisconsin Northwoods and Baccalaureate Nursing Students from Northeast Indiana, USA
Biography
Biography: Lee-Ellen Kirkhorn
Abstract
We often think first of scientific innovations, such as those in the fields of telehealth and telemedicine, however, innovations within the humanities and social sciences also speak to the heart of nursing practice. At Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW), baccalaureate nursing students engage in a week-long domestic intercultural immersion with the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa—a federally recognized Ojibwa Native American tribe with an Indian Tribal Settlement in the Wisconsin Northwoods. Development of the experience is facilitated using social media and networking. A private FB group page for Lac du Flambeau Planning Purposes enables coordination of the many details involved in organizing the immersion such as bus/van transportation across three states, forms for confidentiality and HIPAA, and other essential details. Funding is provided by the Nursing Department and Student Government. During the clinical immersive experience, students engage with tribal members, perform a community assessment in partnership with the Native Health Clinic, and they work and serve side by side elders and younger members of the community. Students provide evidence of their ability to assess a community using classic and contemporary community health nursing literature. They work on projects that are of interest to the Tribe, and return home with a greater appreciation of some of the challenges and opportunities for Native Americans residing on a reservation. At the conclusion of the immersion, students de-brief with their professors and on the nine (9) hour bus trip home, share insights about American Indians and Indigenous People worldwide.