The Creighton name is very prominent and prestigious specifically throughout the Midwest in addition to other parts of the country, and after signing on to begin a partnership with Hebei Medical University in Shijiazhuang, China, this name will soon have international significance as well.

This partnership will greatly benefit both Creighton and Hebei Medical University, as both institutions will work together to further their knowledge and reach in the areas of medicine, pharmacy and potentially dentistry.

Nearly seven years ago, Hebei’s third university hospital expressed interest in joining forces with Creighton to establish a partnership concentrated heavily on rehabilitation — occupational therapy specifically — since China has very few rehabilitation specialists and is seeking a method to fill this void.

In an effort to fulfill China’s lack of rehabilitation specialists, Creighton created the China Honors Interprofessional Program (CHIP) in 2008. The program works to provide Creighton students and faculty with more fields of experience in their respective physical therapy, occupational therapy or nursing fields at Hebei’s 3rd Hospital over their fall break. Hebei University also sends many of their health care professionals to Creighton to learn more about their profession as they work with patients needing rehabilitation.

Former Creighton post-professional doctorate of occupational therapy (PPOTD) student, Linda Frasier decided to study abroad in China through the CHIP during her last year in the PPOTD program at Creighton.

“I was interested in studying more about different cultures, as well as feed my interest in travel and learn how health care and therapy operates in countries other than our own,” Frasier said. “I also wanted to build upon my professional skills in the areas of leadership and cultural competency, which I thought participating in this program would assist me in doing.”

Frasier has visited China twice for the purpose of furthering her expertise in occupational therapy and rehabilitation. The first time she was there for two-and-a-half weeks, and the second time she was there for

only one week.

“When I returned [to China] a second time on my own, I was looking at the aspect of teaching others,” Frasier said. “My passion is teaching and I enjoyed giving back to the profession by teaching others who did not have as much formal and quality education as we receive in the States.”

Frasier currently works as a professor at Touro University where she has the opportunity to share much of what she learned through her experiences working and studying abroad with her students.

Although Frasier very much enjoyed the bulk of her trip to China, she found the best part of her experience to be interacting with the patients and rehabilitation team as she was able to work directly with the therapists, doctors and some nurses regarding education on

stroke rehabilitation.

A strong advocate for the CHIP, Frasier feels that all health professional students should take advantage of the opportunities provided through this program because it helps to build skills which are necessary for students’ future careers.

“[The CHIP] builds leadership and cultural competency, which are skills needed to pursue a career in OT; you build global connections and relationships, which is part of the Centennial Vision for the profession; enhances clinical reasoning skills which is very important in OT; you appreciate what you have here in American once you see the lack of education and different health care system operations that exist in other countries like China,” Frasier said.

Fourth year OT student Melanie Michael decided to participate in the CHIP last year where she spent 10 days studying

in China.

“I knew that the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions at Creighton allowed students the opportunity to study abroad when I first applied back to occupational therapy school in 2010,” Michael said. “When the application went out in our emails in the spring of 2012 I thought to myself, ‘why not? When will I ever have the opportunity personally and professionally to travel to another country and collaborate with their therapists and treat patients?’ What also motivated me was that I have never been outside of the United States before, so I applied. I found out two months

later I was selected to participated in SPAHP’s China Honors interprofessional Program. It was a great feeling.”

Michael is very thankful for the knowledge and experience she gained while in China, and feels that more students should participate in study abroad programs such as this because they increase self-awareness.”

“Personally, I learned so much more about myself and the person I want to become professionally when I went to China. I think that more students need to take advantage of all the study abroad opportunities because it truly impacts your views in a positive way,” Michael said. “You become more receptive and accepting towards new experiences.”

Michael sees Creighton’s expanded partnership with Hebei University as a means to further the success of Creighton health professional students because this could potentially allow more students to take the opportunity to work alongside those in China, either by going to the country or working with them through a distant pathway.

Nursing senior Heather Templin was selected for the CHIP by the School of Nursing faculty and spent a week studying in China. Templin was unable to participate in the CHIP program when she was initially asked the previous year; however she was fortunate enough to be able to go the following year in October 2012.

Templin found the best part of her experience in China to be ultimately getting out of her comfort zone and experiencing something new.

“China is a place that I would never think to put on my travel bucket list, and Creighton gave me this incredible opportunity to travel to someplace new and exciting, and more specifically, to a city and country where the culture and healthcare is so incredibly different from what I am used to,” Templin said. “It was amazing to witness such a contrast in the daily lives of a Chinese citizen.”

During her time working through the CHIP, Templin noticed that

Healthcare delivery in Shijiazhuang and the rest of China is very different from that of the United States she feels that it is very beneficial healthcare for professionals to take note of these differences and use them to learn more about and further develop their practice.

In addition to learning a great deal about nursing while in China, Templin also came to learn even more about herself.

“I discovered how much I take for granted about the rigorous structures, policies and procedures that are in place without our healthcare system here in the U.S,” Templin said. “There is a significant divide between Eastern and Western medicine. Even though some of the care and interventions shocked me a little bit at the Hebei Medical University, they have learned how to marry Eastern and Western medicine. Here, there are still a lot of raised eyebrows about complementary medicine and alternative medicine routes of care. That being said, I am happy to be a health care practitioner in the U.S. My professional role and scope would be very different in China.”