Today was my first full day at Naruesuan University School of Nursing, Consultant, Research, Informatics and Quality. After a 40 hour journey door-to-door, I arrived without incident with nothing lost or stolen including good humour! At Subvarnhabumi Airport in Thailand, "Mr. Joe" picked me up for transfer to Dun Muong International (the former 'big' airport in Bangkok). The puddle jumper on Nok Air was all arranged and I will be reimbursed for the ground transportation which is great. The flight from the U. S. will be reimbursed (I purchased it in March-that way I get miles) and my room at the residence hotel by the university was arranged, again, no money changed hands which is much better for me. Looks as though breakfast and dinner are included and my new colleagues took me to lunch today, ordered my pad thai and it was fantastic.
Through the generosity of the School of Nursing here, I have a short consulting fee for a month of full-time work which includes coaching/mentoring faculty on everything from their publications (inception to submission), PhD applications (many wish to study in the U. S.), some guest lecturing (health economics and case management) and of course, the 'big stuff', the three substantive presentations on administrative issues for the 80 visiting Nurse Manager/Nurse Executive group on the 27th and July 4th.
I had the royal tour today; I signed documents; I rec'd flowers/had my pic taken at the faculty 'meet and greet' where each faculty memeber expressed their goal for our time together. I reflected back on what I thought we could make happen together and it seemed well-rec'd. I have a lecture on Nursing Economics tomorrow and my chapter in the Dunne and Talor text has been translated to Thai overnight! Hope I can cart a copy home, who would have thought?
I will have a translator and/or a member of the faculty around all the time but most people have pretty good English skills as I anticipated. My power points were translated to Thai for the students also and I will be meeting/presenting to each level of the undergrad and grad programs, once each. The real focus of my work here is the big seminar for the Nurse Leaders coming from all over Thailand and the faculty mentoring.
Some of you know I developed my own late-breaking research agenda (tool development, small qualitative study) which I hope to work on with experts here. Down the road, IRB pending at CSU and IRB not approached yet here, I hope to carry out the interviews through SKYPE and TANGO on The Meaning of Nurse Leadership in Thai Hospitals.
I acquired some other duties today, no big deal, and there should be some leisure time with Sunday and Monday off. Perhaps I could fly back to Bangkok and hang around. I really truly hope to hear from people, there is so much to tell here! For example, every time I turn around, someone is pouring tea, providing a glass of water, to go with my mango sponge cake. I was promoted with fliers and blast emails apparently so I feel like a queen. Big change from home, eh?
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