St. Jude is unlike any other pediatric treatment and research facility anywhere. Discoveries made here have completely changed how the world treats children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases.

We are where some of today's most gifted researchers are able to do more science, more quickly. Where doctors across the world send their toughest cases and most vulnerable patients. Where no one pays for treatment beyond what is covered by insurance, and those without insurance are never asked to pay. We've built America's 3rd-largest health-care charity, with a model that keeps the costs down and the funds flowing, so the science never stops.

Nursing Education

Orientation

St. Jude Nursing Education has recently switched to "case based" learning. Classroom efforts are based on patient cases - not dull, encyclopedic textbook learning. Case learning involves an interactive classroom that deals with realistic and specific healthcare situations. Educators work through these cases with orientees.

Staff Development

Continuing Education
St. Jude Nursing Education is a nationally approved provider of nursing contact hours. We provide workshops and seminars, including nationally-known speakers. We have eight approved ONS Chemotherapy trainers.

In-services include:

* Preceptor training
* Advanced Directive Training
* Practically Perfect Pediatric Peripheral Punctures
* Shared Decision Making

Competencies

Nurses at St. Jude perform vastly different tasks, depending on the areas in which they work. For instance, a nurse in the Intensive Care Unit administers hemofiltration (a blood purification system) therapy on a regular basis, whereas a nurse in Stem Cell Transplant often troubleshoots problems with stem cell infusion. A nurse in the Operating Room must know how to position a surgical patient on the operating room table; a nurse in Sedation must be able to administer sedation safely.


International Outreach Nursing School

Modern pediatric Hematology/Oncology is a multidisciplinary specialty with the nurse being an integral member of the team. In 1993, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital began its International Outreach program in El Salvador with an assessment of the nursing staff at the Hospital Benjamin Bloom. Morale, skills and resources were low. The status was yet lower: nurses were NOT considered professionals; they were poorly paid; the majority needed two jobs; infection control was non-existent; they had never received training in basic Hematology/Oncology (HEM/ONC). Most important they did not feel part of the multidisciplinary team.

Recognizing the need for professional nurses, training began in earnest, led by a nurse fluent in Spanish, Nora Donahue, a native of Peru. Ms. Donahue convinced the Salvadoran nurses that developing their professional skills was critical to the survival of the children and future generations of nurses who would come after them even though they themselves would not experience monetary gains. Nurse training has contributed significantly to the dramatic improvement of the quality of care and survival of the pediatric cancer patients in El Salvador. Over the past decade, survival for acute lymphocytic leukemia, the commonest form of childhood cancer, has improved from about 10% to almost 60% in El Salvador.

Prior to 2000, St. Jude International Outreach met the needs for nurse training but it was decided that a different method was needed that would maximize available resources. In 2000, because of the progress made in El Salvador, International Outreach began a collaborative program with the professional nursing society in El Salvador, Sociedad de Profesionales de Enfermeria Sodeproe S.A. de C.V., to establish an International Training Center for HEM/ONC Nurses in Central America. Nurses from all of the Spanish speaking countries affiliated with St. Jude International Outreach are trained with an initial 12-weeks basic program in El Salvador. This program was initiated using the: Train the Trainer concept. A core team of 6 skilled multicultural nursing educators were trained to teach both the didactic and clinical portions of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Hematology-Oncology nursing curriculum.

The first class started in May 2000, with 16 nurses from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Panama, and Mexico. To date, a total of 111 nurses from 16 Latin American countries have been educated in the training center and currently practice/teach pediatric hematology-oncology nursing in their respective countries.

There have been significant advances in the care of cancer patients and how care is delivered. Though the nursing educators in the El Salvador school can access information, language barriers do exist because most of the information is in English. The train the trainer model, using a multimedia, multilingual approach helped International Outreach overcome the barriers and support the instructors in updating their knowledge.

Measures of the success of the program include: (1) willingness of the Pan American Health Organization to provide scholarships, (2) willingness of the hospitals throughout Latin America to repeatedly release their staff to participate in a 12-week training course away from their institutions and their follow-up evaluations of the nurses performance, (3) evaluations completed by participants, and (4) willingness of the participants to train for 12-weeks, away from their homes in another country. Many trainees are called upon to suspend their income during the training period.

To further enhance the curriculum, plans are underway to develop alliances with other institutions, in the United States, Central and South America. Eventually, this Training Center will be without walls as this program is integrated with St. Jude's International Outreach Telemedicine and Distance Learning initiatives. Currently, the distance learning program has developed a culturally sensitive, comprehensive pediatric oncology nursing curriculum that is envisioned to support this training center on a 24 hour basis.

Because the HEM/ONC specialty training only utilizes the resources of the Nurse Training Center for six months of the year, the Training Center can accommodate other programs. For example, other training programs for Central America utilizing the facilities that are currently being sought are medical data management and HIV/AIDS education for health care professionals.

The Training Center facilities are housed in a former private residence and include dorm rooms, dining facilities, and classrooms. The classrooms are equipped with computers and high speed internet access. During the hospital portion of their training, nurses are transported to and from Hospital Benjamin Bloom.

Consistent with the goals of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital International Outreach Program, the overall goal of this initiative is to improve the quality of care to pediatric oncology patients in countries with limited resources through dissemination of current, updated knowledge in pediatric oncology.

More informaion: International Outreach Nursing School

This article is reposted with thanks to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.