Improve Health for All Populations

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At USF, professors lead global learning experiences that inspire students to create a better world.

Taryn Vian’s passion for global health was sparked during a health reform discussion in college. “The professor asked the class, ‘Now, what about the rest of the world?’” said Vian. “I then realized that our discussion had focused only on the U.S., and that I hadn’t really considered the needs of people living in other countries who die from diseases we know how to prevent and cure.” Through her global consulting work and academic career, Vian collaborates with governments and communities in 45 countries to build stronger, more sustainable health systems and increase transparency and accountability for population health outcomes. “It has been the most rewarding career I can imagine,” she said.

In Zambia, Taryn Vian led a team to test an intervention to build waiting homes for expectant mothers. Maternal mortality is 14 times higher in low- and middle-income countries compared to high-income countries. Waiting homes are temporary lodgings near health facilities with skilled care for pregnant mothers close to term. The team helped communities to design the homes so they would be acceptable to the women and their families, and organized leadership training and other activities to make the maternity waiting homes sustainable. Evaluations showed that women in the catchment area of the maternity waiting homes were 69% more likely to deliver at a health facility. This is a critical step in addressing access issues faced by pregnant women in remote areas.

Deepika Goyal’s passion for global health started with a “bucket list” medical global health trip to rural Kenya in 2019 with MedTreks International. As a child of immigrants (India to Kenya to England) and as an immigrant herself (England to the U.S.), her exposure to health care in different countries shaped her career as a nurse educator and nurse practitioner, she said. “Working alongside Village HopeCore International (HopeCore) nurses in the clinic and in the field, learning about global health, and sharing experiences transformed me and my approach to nursing.” In a pilot program,

Trinette Radasa and Deepika Goyal will be traveling to Chogoria, Kenya, with 12 doctor of nursing practice (DNP) family and psychiatric nurse practitioner students to gain an understanding of how one organization’s innovative thinking can improve the health and wellbeing of a community in a low-resource setting. These global experiences expand students’ learning and affect their transition into leadership roles. Students work alongside nurses in the clinic and community health workers in the field. Through HopeCore’s many initiatives, students invest in maternal-infant health (e.g., health education, prenatal care), improving child health (e.g., deworming, mosquito net distribution, vision screening), and community health (e.g., water sanitation, malaria prevention, blood pressure screening).