This piece originally appeared on the Good Notes blog.

When you picture a developing country, what do you see?

Political strife, poverty, government corruption? You might not think that a country like Rwanda could teach us how to improve as a health care system. But it can, and it is.

Transcending borders

This summer, a group of University of Utah College of Nursing students and faculty had the opportunity to travel halfway around the planet to share in a collaborative learning experience with the University of Rwanda. It was a shining example of global learning in practice, and a life-changing experience for all who went.

The purpose of global learning is to bring minds together from across the planet. We gather perspectives and backgrounds to tackle complex problems that transcend borders. We cooperate at the highest level, using our networks to exchange ideas and solve problems in novel ways.

In this case, it’s all about reciprocity. This trip was a nurse-to-nurse collaboration to help grow the field in a developing country and find solutions to common challenges, both in Rwanda and here in Utah.

But why nursing? And why Rwanda?

For nurses, by nurses

Globally speaking, Rwanda is a special case. In most countries, women-led professions like nursing and teaching are vastly under-appreciated.

But Rwanda’s government is making leaps and bounds in elevating women in their society. By constitution, 30% of all elected positions in decision making bodies at the national and subnational levels, including 24 of the 80 seats in the lower house of the parliament, must be held by women. And traditionally women-led fields like nursing and teaching are growing in stature.

This creates a perfect opportunity for Utah to collaborate with Rwandan nurses. As it turns out, we have a lot to learn from each other.

University of Utah College of Nursing students and faculty facilitate a Helping Babies Breathe training in Rwanda.

What Rwanda can teach us

Rwandan PhD nursing students shared their research with us at a symposium. To my surprise, many of Rwanda’s fundamental challenges also exist here in Utah.

Those issues are things like newborn intensive care, emergency transport, and challenges related to women’s rights and access to abortion. Though the details differ, these are all things we deal with, too.

One of the major challenges Rwanda faces is transportation. The country is mountainous, like Utah. But they also deal with worse infrastructure and more congestion.

So how do they quickly move time-sensitive supplies, like blood and HIV medication, to remote areas?

Their solution is autonomous glider drones. These drones, which fly 70 mph, can transport supplies to anywhere in the country in just 15 minutes. That’s faster than I can get blood from the hospital, here on campus.

They’re using state-of-the-art technology to transport the world’s oldest medicine.

Lessons from a different health system

Solutions like drone transport are increasing the country’s access to health care. For example, the country vaccinated 82% of its population almost immediately when the COVID vaccine became available.

In addition, access to health care is growing rapidly. Rwanda is working to quadruple their health care workforce in four years. Frontline workers handle contraception, HIV management, malaria treatments, and diarrhea—the most common problems in the country.

On top of that, 90% of the population has insurance, which costs about $3 per person per year. People have a lot of access for common problems, which is improving overall health of the population. Their maternal mortality and infant mortality are declining, and lifespan is increasing. HIV is on the decline.

Getting to see how Rwanda handles its problems and how their health care system works is invaluable experience for our students.

What we have to offer

Because our students gain so much from this experience, it is important that we do everything we can do make it mutually beneficial.

Nine students and three faculty from the College of Nursing spent a very busy week in Rwanda. The students were selected at random from a pool of 75 applicants.

I’m proud to report we accomplished everything we set out to do:

• Follow up on programs we established during a previous trip in 2019
• Attend University of Rwanda research symposium
• Train nurses on infant resuscitation (Helping Babies Breathe)
• Tour local community health clinics to see frontline care practices
• Tour one of the launch sites for the drone delivery operation
• Discuss potential for online collaborative learning projects
• Tour the Kigali Genocide Museum

Aside from the day-to-day activities, one of our main contributions is offering our faculty to serve on committees for their PhD students. The University of Rwanda offers a BS, MS and PhD in nursing.

But the MS and PhD programs are still very new, and the university doesn’t have enough faculty yet to advise PhD students. Helping them build a robust faculty will create a solid foundation to expand nursing across the country.

Next steps

Now that we’re back home, we’re looking to the future. The most pressing question is “When are we going again?” On one hand, these trips are an invaluable experience for students. On the other, traveling halfway across the globe burns a lot of fossil fuel and we want to be as sustainable as possible.

Our next step is to assess needs and figure out what we can accomplish in a low-impact way. We want to fill as many of their needs as possible virtually. But as we gain momentum, we will plan another student trip.

Another goal is to publish alongside some of our Rwandan colleagues. We collected data on our students’ perspectives before and after the trip. We’re hoping to write a paper about the importance of this kind of experience to encourage more grant funding.

We are also working to create avenues for Rwandan students to do exchange programs here in the U.S. Getting a visa is tricky for Rwandan students, but we are committed to building bridges and making it easier for them to study here.

Deeper understanding

We gave a lot and gained a lot on this trip. We lent our skills and helped promote the field of nursing in a developing nation. We learned about how a different health system confronts challenges.

For Utah students, the biggest takeaway is the human connections they made with everyone they encountered. Travel broadens the mind like nothing else.

I want our students to carry a more worldly perspective with them for the rest of their lives. When they study, work, vote, and interact with people, they will do it with a broader understanding of humankind.