Allison Reilly’s desire to advocate for patients extends far beyond her home town of Long Island, New York, and the University of New Hampshire campus. The senior Honors in Major nursing student was awarded a grant by the International Research Opportunities Program (IROP) to learn how another country’s culture affects their health care system. She chose to travel to Australia, where she joined a team of health care professionals on the Improving the Culture of Hospitals project, an initiative whose goal is to improve hospital care for the country’s Aboriginal population. Allison is confident that her IROP experience will make her a better all-around nurse, no matter the location. “I now believe that being a patient advocate is just as important as administering medications,” she says. “I feel natural when helping people in need.”
Allison will graduate with a B.S. in May 2010, and plans to pursue eventually a doctorate in nursing, following in the footsteps of her mentor. “I hope to someday be a mentor to a nursing student as Dr. Harkless has done for me,” says Allison, who is a member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. “I know that I will always be interested in research,” she says, “but I will never lose touch with working with patients themselves.”
Gene Harkless, DNSC, ARNP, is an associate professor in the Department of Nursing. A family nurse practitioner who has taught at the University of New Hampshire since 1985, Dr. Harkless is a frequent mentor and enjoys working with students such as Allison as they take on international endeavors. “For past IROPers, it has been life-changing. They create a whole new lens through which to see the world,” she says. “Students grow to understand their own academic abilities, to ask a question and search for answers and perspectives outside of expert text materials.”
Allison couldn’t agree with her more. “This experience has opened my eyes to the rest of the world,” she says, citing Dr. Harkless’ support through the entire research process as being essential to her positive experience. “I respect her opinion more than anyone else in the nursing field,” says Allison.
You may read more about Dr. Gene Harkless in Mentor Highlights >>
Allison’s foreign mentor was John Willis, Project Manager, Australian Institute of Primary Care.
Read Allison Reailly’s research article Cultural Reform in Acute Care: Learning from Australia’s Improving the Culture of Hospitals Project >>
