---

With funding from the High North Program, McMaster University and the University College of Southeast Norway (HSN) are working together to tackle global health issues specific to Arctic regions and to create opportunities for student and faculty exchanges. To this end, the Global Health Office recently welcomed a delegation of two professors and three graduate students from HSN’s Faculty of Health Sciences.

HSN professors Dr. Steffen Torp and Dr. Pia Bing-Jonsson attended the Global Health Advisory Board to discuss HSN’s role in a unique joint course to complement McMaster’s MSc Global Health program. Titled “Global transition within local communities. Small place, big changes”, the course will be offered in January 2017 and will focus on health policy issues relevant to Canada’s and Norway’s High North regions.

Funding for the course will allow McMaster students to travel and study in Norway in the winter term before their travel to India in the spring to participate in the annual Global Health Symposium. In addition, McMaster faculty will travel to Norway to deliver lectures and meet with students. Since receiving funding in 2014, McMaster has sent three Global Health students to Norway.

“Partnerships like this allow us to expose our students to global perspectives and create opportunities to further advance McMaster’s involvement in international study and research,” says Andrea Baumann, MSc Global Health Program Director.

HSN students have also benefitted from the partnership’s focus on increasing mobility between the two institutions. During their recent visit to campus, Ingrid Eilersten, a doctoral student in HSN’s Department of Nursing, and Advanced Practice Nursing Masters students Trine Haugsmark and Abiel Øvrebø had the opportunity to advance their knowledge in graduate health sciences education at McMaster and in Canada. And, thanks to the program, Haugsmark and Øvrebø were able to complete a two-week observational clinical placement in their areas of interest, with Haugsmark placed at Critical Care Nursing at St. Joseph’s Healthcare and Øvrebø at Community Care at Shalom Village.

“The highlight of the visit was the opportunity for our students to complete these clinical placements in Hamilton,” says Dr. Bing-Jonsson. “This hands-on learning has been extremely valuable and we look forward to further exchanges.”