Video conferencing with India: Finding a common bond

The students were nervous before the video-conference course began. They didn’t know what to expect from the weekly sessions that would bring together School of Nursing students at the University of Michigan with their counterparts at the Salokaya School of Nursing in Delhi, India.

But U-M student Jessica Page said a common bond quickly developed as they studied community nursing. “Being the best nurse you can be and just having someone’s life in your hands – that’s a universal thing,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re in India or if you’re in Michigan.”

Amber Dallwig, a clinical instructor at U-M’s School of Nursing, said that by studying India, the students developed a better understanding of their own backyards.  “I think we can always look at another country and say, ‘They need this and they need that,'” Dallwig said. “But it has really taught them to look at their own country, their own state, their own community, their own blocks.”