A broader understanding of global health care

Every fall semester, a group of Bachelor of Science in Nursing students from the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing attend the Rome Center. Led by a rotating professor from Chicago, the students in the Global Health Program enhance their education as health professionals beyond the borders of a US classroom by examining the global health system. Sophomore Brayden Diethelm, who studied in Rome in the fall of 2025, reflects on his semester and how his experience deepened his understanding of the nursing profession.

 

As a nursing major, when I learned about the Global Health Program at the Rome Center , I jumped on the opportunity to apply. The rigorous and highly scientific nature of our courses were challenging and I was able to satisfy my love of traveling and discovering new places.

My experience  in Rome has been fantastic, and has taught me so much about my future career as well as my life outside of it. The nursing classes  were a very enlightening experience in many ways. I developed a very close bond with the other students in the nursing cohort, as well as with Dr. Monique Ridosh, our professor. We participated in multiple site visits and opportunities outside of standard classes to engage with the health care environment  in Italy, taking advantage of our unique location. Throughout the course, we toured an Italian hospital, learned about the public and private health care sectors in Italy, toured a refugee center, and learned about a health care nonprofit based in Rome. We got to meet some of the children being cared for through the nonprofit organization, and actually got to host them for a day on campus.

These experiences gave me a broader understanding of the global health care picture, as well as how the American health care system compares to those in other countries. Inside the classroom, the experiences were just as insightful and engaging. With lectures, class discussions, and group presentations, I learned a lot about some aspects of nursing that do not get talked about often enough.

 

Nursing students with Dean Lorna Finnegan

 

In our Concepts of Professional Practice class, my peers and I explored the role that nurses play in the broader health care community, as well as the traits that need to be fostered to develop good nurses and the factors outside of simple physiology that can affect a person’s health and wellbeing. In our Nursing Research class, we were able to explore the role that nurses play in research, as well as learn how to conduct our own research and how to implement new research into our daily practice someday.

While the medical knowledge and skills of a nurse are very important, elements like research and professional practice are often glossed over, even though they are equally important aspects when it comes to being a good, well-rounded nurse. I feel very lucky to have been able to study these things in such a unique and informative environment. I also feel it’s important to note that my amazing experience at the Rome Center was not solely due to my experience in the nursing cohort.

 

Nursing students play with children of the KIM Association

 

Life at the Rome Center is extremely rich and varied, and I was fortunate to be involved in so much. I had the pleasure of taking an on-site class this semester, meaning that I attended lectures out in the city of Rome, where we visited all of the historically important sites, including iconic places like the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the Roman Forum. Outside of the classroom, I developed my skills and my passion for photography as a member of the social media team. I spent my Wednesday nights playing calcio (the Italian word for soccer) with my friends and fellow students. And perhaps most importantly, I got to spend my weekends exploring Rome, Italy and the rest of Europe.

Rome has so much to offer as a city, and I got to see and do so many amazing things, from finding delicious restaurants and cafes, to learning something new in Rome’s many museums, to shopping at flea markets, to hiking and swimming in the mountains and beaches outside of the city, to attending a papal audience at the Vatican, to running a 5K around the Colosseum. The Rome Center students even attended a mass at the Chiesa di Sant’Ignazio di Loyola, which is the church in Rome dedicated to St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits.

 

Brayden Diethelm on the Path of the Gods in the Amalfi Coast

 

Outside of Rome, I got to see many other parts of Italy, including Venice, Florence, and the Amalfi Coast, and outside of Italy I got to see so many other parts of Europe, including Greece, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Poland. I feel as though I made the most of not only Rome’s many offerings, but also of the close proximity of so many other incredible places, and it taught me so much about the world outside of the United States.

Even just the experience of living somewhere and not speaking the language is incredibly enlightening, especially going into health care where you interact with people from all different cultures and backgrounds, who speak all different languages, all the time. I learned a lot about how to be more compassionate and open-minded in my future nursing career, and I got to hear the stories of so many different people from so many different backgrounds. I will be taking a lot of these lessons with me back to the United States, and I am very excited to apply it to my career and the ways I interact with patients someday.

Overall, this semester has not only been some of the best, most fun months of my life, it has also been a learning experience unlike any other, and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity.

 

All photos by Brayden Diethelm