TRANSCULTURAL NURSING - A PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL CHALLENGE

Practicing overseas in a transcultural setting is one of the most chal lenging personal and professional experiences. Most transcultural nurs ing opportunities are with surgical teams that provide health care to people for whom these services would otherwise be unavailable. These c linical practice opportunities are usually in underprivileged areas wh ere the patients speak little or no English and the environment is ver y different from what we are accustomed to. At the same time, this typ e of clinical practice provides emotional rewards and personal gratifi cation that reinforce one's commitment to patient care and the nursing profession. People are overwhelmingly grateful for medical and surgic al services that were never available to them before. As a caregiver, being able to provide an individual with an opportunity for a meaningf ul life that would otherwise have been denied is satisfying beyond des cription. Physical deformities are unacceptable in many cultures. Thos e individuals who are not completely ''normal'' are often ostracized o r hidden away. An 8-year-old girl with a cleft lip was brought to our team with a bag over her head. In her lifetime, she had not Flayed wit h other children. Following surgery, imagine the parents' joy at the s ight of their child with lip intact, and imagine the feelings of the t eam who participated in giving this child an opportunity to live a muc h fuller and more normal life. The sense of satisfaction and professio nal pride lasts a lifetime and is renewed with every recounting of the se wonderful experiences (Fig. 1).