By Marjorie Schaffer

Fulbright Research Results in Book

In 2005 I traveled as a Fulbright Scholar to do research in Norway on ethical problems encountered by elderly Norwegians in end-of-life decision making. While there I visited Oslo, Bergen, and Tromsø to interview health professionals (25), elders (6), and family members (5) about their end-of-life experiences.

I found the nurses’ stories to be very inspiring. After writing an article, published in Nursing Ethics in 2007, I reflected on how many of the nurses’ stories about the end-of-life care they provided were about communication. The communication challenges they encountered included how to be present with patients and families, knowing what to say and when to say it, responding to patient and family wishes and hopes, understanding the spiritual journey, responding to conflict, advocating for patients and families, and helping them to say goodbye.  

I decided to explore the themes identified in what the nurses had shared, and together with my co-author, Linda Norlander, wrote a book that features many of the Norwegian nurses’ stories.  The book, titled Being Present: A Nurse’s Resource for End of Life Communication , was published by Sigma Theta Tau International in July 2009.

My Fulbright Story Continues

Though much of my time as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Oslo was spent on research, I had also come to lecture on public health nursing, nursing ethics, and end-of-life decision-making. One of the lectures I had the opportunity to provide was a presentation on the Public Health Intervention Wheel at Diakonova University College in Oslo.  As a result of that presentation, nursing faculty at Diakonova decided to integrate the Public Health Intervention Wheel into their postgraduate nursing program. Over the next few years I continued to have email communication with public health nursing faculty from Diakonova. In 2008, two nursing faculty from Diakonova, Kari Glavin and Lisbeth Kvarme, traveled to my home state of Minnesota to do doctoral work at the University of Minnesota.  They visited my classes at Bethel University and came to my public health nursing clinical site.  They visited my church and also had the opportunity to become “voyageurs” and paddled in a big North canoe on the St. Croix River.

Canoeing on the St. Croix River

During that visit, Kari Glavin began planning for an International Public Health Nursing Conference at Diakonova that would take place in October 2009. I received an invitation to present at the conference and decided it would be a good time to apply to become a Fulbright Specialist. My application was approved and I received an award to travel to Diakonova University College for two visits of over two weeks, one in October 2009 and another in May 2010.  

I had a wonderful visit in October. At the conference, I had the opportunity to present the research that I conducted in Norway in 2005 and to share the Norwegian nurses’ stories that inspired my book on nurses’ communication at the end of life.  It was very rewarding to bring both my research and the nurses’ stories back to Norwegian nurses.

Lunch with faculty from Bethel and Diakonova.

In addition to presenting my research and offering a workshop on the Public Health Intervention Wheel, I consulted with Kari and Lisbeth about the course they are developing on public health nursing for a new master’s program and helped plan for a new partnership between Bethel University and Diakonova University College.  We have many good ideas about exchanging students, faculty, and collaborating on research.  Faculty and students at both Diakonova and Bethel plan to look into Fulbright programs to help fund some of these initiatives.