Visit from across the pond to improve our Nursing Student's learning experience
Karen Bowman from the University of Washington, Bothell (Seattle) visited London South Bank University to advise on improving our Nursing student's learning experience.Dr Louise Terry, Reader in Law and Ethics and Senior Lecturer at LSBU, recently facilitated the visit by Karen who is a clinical faculty member in the Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing Programme at the University of Washington. She has been involved in state and national policy making on environmental and green issues and runs her own company working with employees and companies to improve human and environmental health for more than two decades.
This was Karen's first visit to the UK and she was invited by the Royal College of Nursing to visit a number of organisations in London. The goal of her visit was to research the feasibility of developing an educational experience for nursing students focused around shared experiences and strategies in occupational and environmental health.
Whilst at LSBU, Karen met with a number of people within the Faculty of Health and Social Care. She also met with Kerry Horvath and Anuj Saush, the Energy and Environment team within Estates and Facilities and was taken on a tour of the Centre for Efficient and Renewable Energy in Buildings (CEREB) by Kerry whose work on developing green impact teams and environmental initiatives across the university has given Karen some great ideas to take back to the University of Washington and elsewhere.
Karen's work involves her looking into the health and well-being of an entire company and all its employees, she then uses her expertise in occupational and environmental health nursing, occupational medicine, toxicology, epidemiology, industrial hygiene and public health to design and implement highly customized, cost-effective strategies for her clients.
Karen is already planning on returning to visit LSBU in the next few months to continue developing ideas for shared teaching, student visits and other interactions between the University of Washington and LSBU.