The visit of Professor Susan O'Hara from Ohio State University has opened up possibilities for intensive cooperation

Professor Susan O'Hara, PhD, MPH, RN, who spent more than a week at the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences USB, returned to the United States with a lot of inspiration for future cooperation, as well as memories of many pleasant meetings. She came from Ohio State University (OSU), a public research university in Columbus, Ohio. Susan O'Hara is a nursing major - and teaches at the College of Nursing at the university. She has known the director of the Institute of Nursing, Midwifery and Emergency Care, prof. PhDr Valéria Tóthová, Ph.D., for a long time, since she worked at Clemson University in South Carolina.

Our colleagues from the Institute of Nursing, Midwifery and Emergency Care took care of Susan O’Hara’s busy schedule. They presented her with details of the study programmes focused on nursing, scientific research projects and their outputs. Professor O'Hara also met with doctoral students and prepared several topics for them (the reactions of the doctoral students can be found at the end of this article). As well as this, she visited České Budějovice hospital, became a member of the graduation collegium, etc. In her free time, Professor O’Hara managed to visit some attractive sites in southern Bohemia, such as Český Krumlov and Třeboň.

Ohio State University pays great attention to innovation, which is why it offers a master's degree in innovation. The cooperation agreement between our faculty and OSU was signed at the beginning of 2022. In February 2022, the Erasmus+ project KA171 (aimed at developing cooperation between the two universities) was submitted. The OSU research university uses two important and very inspiring centres for our faculty: the Center for Healthcare Innovation and Leadership, and the Ohio State’s Center for Transdisciplinary Evidence-based Practice (CTEP). “This school is very advanced in innovative nursing. I even discovered that I have been using the books of the dean of this faculty for several years for teaching the subject Evidence Based Nursing," said prof. Tóthová, vice-dean for science and research at the SHSS USB, who will visit Ohio State University for the first time in October. A doctoral student from INMEC will also head to the USA.

Professor O´Hara was particularly interested in our faculty's comprehensive understanding of the nursing study programme. “I was very impressed by the combination of research and practical teaching, as well as the involvement of the teachers and their ideas for innovation,” she said. “I am convinced that there are great possibilities for cooperation with our university. It is very important for us to gain experience in nursing in different cultures." She kept the dean of the College of Nursing informed about her journey, also giving her the news that she had become a member of the graduate collegium of a group of graduates of study programs in the INMEC. "It was a great honour for me,” she said. “The atmosphere of your graduations is amazing. I really liked how personal the mutual contact between students and teachers was." She also thanked all the colleagues for their hospitality and for everything they managed to show her during her visit.

A tour of the Simulation Centre for Health-oriented Fields was a great experience for her. She was interested in its equipment and the teaching method. She was particularly excited by the realistic ambulance located in the basement, where future paramedics can get a real idea of ​​the space they have to work in when transporting a patient. In Ohio they also use simulation to teach, but they don't have a real ambulance at the training centre. While they use a lot of virtual reality perceived through 3D glasses, according to the American professor, such a complex workplace equipped with the most modern models is unique. "It must be very beneficial for students,” she said. “It's great to be able to set scenarios of different situations that correspond to reality." She was also impressed by the enthusiasm of the teachers who provide an impressive atmosphere for the training.

Professor Tóthová was very pleased with these reactions, and also believes that the two faculties will work well together. She already has several specific topics that she plans to propose to her American colleagues in the autumn. Our faculty can enter this partnership with great confidence: Susan O'Hara was pleasantly surprised by the comprehensiveness of our study programmes. She was also interested in the achievements of the FHSS USB in scientific research activities. The director of the Institute of Nursing, Midwifery and Emergency Care, Prof. Tóthová concluded: "We presented her with some analysis that provided an idea of ​​the number of projects and publication activity. She was also interested in the topics of individual research projects and their results applied in practice. We also presented her with monographs created within previous research projects. She was very surprised by the number of projects we tackle and how intensively our teams work on them."

Reactions of our PhD students:

PhDr. Martin Červený

Prof. Susan O'Hara is a very inspiring person. I was extremely surprised by her view of nursing and the great potential she sees in nurses who can design new innovations and implement them in healthcare to improve patient health or healthcare in general. I would like to adopt this mindset of health innovation and develop it in my field.

M.Sc. Inka Kratochvílová

Our meeting was extremely interesting and inspiring. We were introduced to the topic of Building a Culture of Innovation in the Health System, which was completely new to me. Once again, it showed that American nurses are among the leaders in nursing research and development.

M.Phil. Rehana Kabooro MSc. (doctoral student from Pakistan)

I really enjoyed Susan O'Hara's presentation. She highlighted many important things for students who want to make it in nursing and improve society. She worked on the topic of interdisciplinary nursing in public health, which was very interesting to me. I would like to work with her in the future to strengthen the role of modern innovations to support nursing and public health.