NURSING EDUCATION AND MENTAL HEALTH CARE IN SWEDEN: Impressions from a Faculty Exchange with the University of Växjö

Abstract

Abstract A SABBATICAL LEAVE during the spring of 1999 has led to an ongoing exchange program between CEDAR CREST COLLEGE, a small women's liberal arts college located in northeastern Pennsylvania, and the UNIVERSITY OF VAXJO, a major regional university in southeastern Sweden. The author visited the University of Vaxjo to pursue her research interest in transcultural nursing and health care and to exchange information on nursing education and practice, with a focus on mental health nursing and health care. Her long-range goal was to develop further faculty and student exchanges. The first author instituted an ongoing exchange program for nursing students and faculty in a small women's liberal arts college in eastern Pennsylvania and a regional university in southeastern Sweden. A site visit to Sweden in 1999 initiated discussion of differences in educational methodologies and mental health care between Sweden and the United States. This visit served as the basis for continued interaction between the two i...