I focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goal #9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation. (UN General Assembly, 2018). As I walked through the streets of Chester, I came to notice that the city was very walkable: everything from the local clothing stores to the supermarkets were within a 2-kilometer radius, with the distribution of the stores being spread out to each cover the more rural areas. There was a lot of visible social infrastructure, from shops dedicated to donating part of their revenue to care (e.g. For The Kids) to donation bins for food and old items at the exits in every Tesco (popular supermarket) we visited. One of the nursing students mentioned that Chester was the “more posh” area within Cheshire, and the coverage and abundance of the stores reflected that status. He mentioned that where he lived, the drug use problem was higher and the concept of a “food desert” was visible. Interestingly enough, the Chester students stated that tap water was safe to drink and nearly everyone drank out of the tap, with some exceptions in nuclear or waste zones. Compared to the US’ limitation primarily being distribution of food, he stated that the food deserts here were caused by stretched supplies of essential products and over-reliance on food imports. Thus, the more economically viable locations received a substantially higher variety and quality of food, as well as access to and development of social infrastructure.

The communities that have better inclusivity and sustainable innovation tend to have a better chance at attracting workers and companies. More workers mean growing population, and more companies equate to economic viability and increased necessity of social infrastructure. How the nurses in the community treat patients and innovate methods of care directly affects the social infrastructure of a town/city: within Chester, availability of food banks, safe houses for sexual abuse victims, and coordination of localized care were connected with various resources, connected with the help of countless community nurses who played a vital part in starting these programs, advocating for these programs, and implementing them where they were needed most. By surveying areas for local health organizations, looking at infrastructure inequality, and advocating for needed programs, the nurse in the community can promote innovative solutions and increase inclusivity with health in the population and industries, leading to viable, sustainable, and resilient infrastructure.

References
United Nations General Assembly. (2018). SDG Goal 9: Responsible consumption, production. Retrieved from https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg9

I find the concept of a global citizen for health professionals interesting. To me, it is the most comprehensive and actionable definition of global citizenship: one that can be put into practice realistically. I think Millar et al. put it best with their take on global citizenship:

“A health professional as a global citizen is one who is acquainted with and aware of global health and well-being, plus values diversity and possesses inter-group empathy. A health professional global citizen is motivated by social justice, promotes environmental sustainability and has a felt responsibility to engage in global openness, participation and inter-group helping.” (Millar et al., 2019)

Growing up in Korea, I remember learning about other cultures at a really young age. I was being taught English in preschool, and I remember my teachers telling the importance of learning from other cultures to not just strengthen myself or the nation, but to also help others in need. I didn’t really get what they meant by that statement until I moved back to the U.S. Getting off the plane to live in a place that I only saw on TV, with people that actually live and speak what I was studying was pretty mind-blowing. People thought differently, had different worldviews, had different values on what’s important in life, and so on. The most daunting thing that was different to us however, was the differences with ideas on health. I remember having to act as a bit of an intermediary between my parents who didn’t initially “get” what the doctor was expressing, and our doctor, who didn’t really understand the context to many of our questions. Things like drug and medicine advertisements, being able to ask for specific medications and being sent to a specialist for a minor broken bone collided with our ideas on healthcare. Advertising drugs directly to patients was illegal and somewhat sleazy, it was to be trusted that our doctor would tailor our medication prescription to us, and it was perceived as incompetence, medically and monetarily excessive to be sent to a specialist for a broken finger. We eventually learned how the U.S. viewed healthcare over many hospital visits and several years living in-country, and currently navigate it with more ease that I do. But I can’t forget how stressed my parents were in the beginning over trying to understand what they were told, and feeling like their requests weren’t understood and ignored.

(Shakarishvili, 2016)

Proactively learning how to alleviate this worry in patients in my professional career is part of why I signed up on this Study Abroad program. Being able to share different perspectives of healthcare in an academic setting and then immersing ourselves in a different healthcare system is an incredible opportunity. As I have some experience living a similar situation before, I hope to learn a different perspective on health and healthcare, and get an inkling of what a person from Europe or the greater Anglosphere might see as important or valuable. I hope to avoid the negative stereotypes that us Americans can have by understanding that I am not in my country anymore, verifying to make as few assumptions as possible, and keeping an open mind. I hope to contribute to our group with sharing the experiences I had with the Korean and U.S. Military healthcare system, and look forward to learning about how others think about health and healthcare.

References:

Shakarishvili, A., M. D. (2016, June 27). Barriers to #healthcare in US vs Canada, France, Germany, UK.Cost, waiting time..(photo: @RAdamsDudleyMD)#EU pic.twitter.com/0xD5MAvRWR. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/anishakari/status/747505229768232961

Millar, C., Carey, L. B., Fortune, T., Mathisen, B. A., Hill, A. E., Dukhno, J., & Mckenzie, B. (2019). Global citizenship: Defining capabilities for speech-language pathology. International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 21(3), 317–324. doi: 10.1080/17549507.2019.1607902