Students in Jordan and New Jersey to Benefit from Online, Collaborative Nursing Program Thanks to Felician College Fulbright Scholar

Lodi and Rutherford, NJ--Felician College Associate Professor of Nursing, Dr. Mary E. Norton, will direct a long distance clinical nursing program between the University of Jordan and Felician College thanks to a Fulbright Scholarship she recently received for her proposal, Online Collaborative Clinical Nursing Development.  A three-time Fulbright Scholarship recipient, Norton was a Fulbright Scholar in 1986/87 and in 1998/99 at the University of Jordan, where she helped to establish the first Master of Science in Nursing program in the country in 1987 and conducted research on informed consent and patient autonomy from 1998-99.  In 1998, she also received a grant from the Scientific Committee of the University of Jordan to study "Risk Factors Correlated with Breast Cancer in Jordanian Women.”  The study will be published in Image: The Journal of Nursing Scholarship in February 2002.

Norton’s most recent Fulbright Scholarship was granted under the new Fulbright Alumni Initiatives (AIA) Program of the US Department of State, Education, and Cultural Affairs Bureau (ECA) and the Institute of International Education (IIE).  The two-year award will support the development of a distance learning program between the University of Jordan and Felician College.  Dr. Norton’s application was one of only 19 to be funded from over 200 submitted.

The Online Collaborative Nursing Development Project aims to prepare nursing faculty at the University of Jordan to practice at an advanced clinical level so that they can better prepare nurses to work in the numerous specialty hospitals that have opened in Jordan over the last seven years, and care for patients with complex health care needs in those facilities.  The initiative builds upon the collaborative relationship Felician College and the University of Jordan have shared since 1986, and will strengthen the linkages between the two institutions.  The Online Collaborative Nursing Development Project will continue internationalizing the nursing curricula of Felician College and the University of Jordan so that there is sustainable development that will allow nursing graduates to maintain and periodically upgrade their skills.

The goals of the project will be achieved through the development of interactive online educational packages to be delivered via distance learning.  Because the courses are offered online, the program delivery does not depend on favorable geopolitical conditions, and it fosters internationalization of each institution, maximizing the benefits for health care delivery in both countries.

The curriculum will be designed to meet the self-identified learning needs of the Jordanian participants. Felician College students will be included in selected courses, and participants from each institution will be assigned to learning triads for course projects so that a collegial relationship and cultural awareness and sensitivity are fostered. 

The benefits of the online program are significant and far-reaching.  “Through the project, Felician College nursing students will be exposed to a new world-view and have the opportunity to study with international participants as peers.  They will, in turn, be able to use this knowledge in a meaningful way when caring for the large Arab populations in local New Jersey health care institutions,” says Norton.  Additionally, the program will educate Jordanian nurses in the region where they live and practice their profession, through a cost-effective and culturally relevant program.  “Usually, this type of continuing education takes place abroad, is very costly, and educates only a small number of participants.  Moreover, the material studied in such programs often does not take into account local needs and constraints.  Providing the program online eliminates all of those issues,” notes Norton.

Dr. Norton’s international work has been extensive during her 27 years in the nursing profession, and her vision and direction have had a profound impact on nations around the world.  In addition to the outcomes she has accomplished through her work as a Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Norton has served as an educational consultant, developing nursing programs in Jordan, Pakistan, Iran, China, Mexico, and the Caribbean.  She also developed and directed the first and only baccalaureate nursing program in Pakistan in 1981, and developed and taught in the first graduate nursing program in Iran from 1977 to 1979.  In 1981, Dr. Norton brought Felician nursing students to work in the Yucatan (Mexico) with funding from the Pallotine Fathers.  They went back every summer for the next six years.  In 1988, Dr. Norton served as coordinator of a project at the Beijing Medical University, preparing faculty, deans and directors from 11 baccalaureate nursing programs in China.  She has also served as a consultant to the World Health Organization in Caracas, Venezuela, where she helped to develop standards for the care of hospitalized patients in Caribbean nations, and was a member of the health team of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Cornell Medical School and the International Rescue Committee working in Cambodian Refugee Camps in Thailand. 

Most recently, Dr. Norton was appointed as a 1999-2001 United Nations Representative of the International Council of Nurses to Non-Governmental Organizations.  In this role, she was elected Secretary of the Executive Committee - Department of Public Information and Non-Governmental Organizations; and was a member of the planning committee for the 54^th Annual DPI/NGO Conference September 2001.  She was an invited to participate in the United Nations General Assembly, Special Session on HIV and Aids, in June 2001; and was an invited participant of the Twenty-Third Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly, “Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century, in June 2000.