• Baylor Nursing working to improve nursing education in India

    Baylor's Louise Herrington School of Nursing faculty and students participated in a groundbreaking ceremony for the new center in India.

    There’s a bit of Baylor Nursing on the other side of the world — in India, to be precise, where members of the profession have historically received little respect.

    Representatives from Baylor’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing (LHSON) are working to change that. For years, Baylor Nursing faculty and staff have been traveling to India to help develop the country’s nursing education. It began with a workshop for the nursing faculty of Bangalore’s Rebekah Ann Naylor School of Nursing. (Interestingly enough, the Naylor School of Nursing school was begun by and named for a Baylor graduate — the culmination of her efforts in India from the 1970s through the 1990s, work that led some to call Naylor “the Mother Theresa of Bangalore”.)

    That workshop began as a simple mission trip for Dr. Shelby Garner, an assistant professor at Baylor. But it became so much more.

    “Due to complex religious and cultural factors, nursing is not perceived as a respectable profession in India,” Garner says. “As we wrapped up the workshop and I returned to the United States, I felt called to establish ongoing partnerships with my colleagues in India to address some of these challenges.” And it seems Garner was right about the call she felt; she was recently awarded a Fulbright grant to continue researching nursing education and simulation training in India.

    One example of why Garner received this prestigious, internationally recognized award? She collaborated with Bangalore Baptist Hospital and the Naylor School of Nursing in India to get a generous $650,000 grant to build a nursing education center in Bengaluru, India. Garner even worked with Baylor Scott & White Health to donate carts, stretchers, IV poles, dressing, syringes and other such practical needs to help the center get started. The dean of LHSON, Dr. Shelley Conroy, was recently appointed to an international committee that promotes heath care education — and is understandably excited about both the grant and the school’s work in India.

    “[Dr. Garner] has embraced the mission of the LHSON and Baylor University to serve both God and the world through educational excellence, built upon the Christian faith,” says Conroy. “She definitely exemplifies our LHSON motto: Learn. Lead. Serve.”

    Sic ’em, Baylor Nursing!