by Daira Wilson PhD, RN, Professor of Nursing, Professional Nursing

I just finished the Global Peace and Conflict Studies FLC and honestly, this is the best one yet. The vocabulary of the topic was all new to me: structural violence, peacebuilding, conflict transformation, etc. I was wading into new territory and it took me a little while to really grasp the scope of all that we were talking about in our seminars with each other as well as in the presentations given by the experts on the subject from the University of Texas. One of the deliverables of this project is to incorporate some of what we learned into our courses and teaching.

I teach a course called Public and Global Health Policy in the RN to BSN program in the Professional Nursing Department. I felt that this course was perfect for introducing these concepts and seeing how they intersected with nursing. I introduced a new module in my course for these topics. Since my course discusses health policy, I felt that discussing the policies from the Geneva Conventions would be the best place to start. I wanted to also cover the topic of how nursing is delivered in conflict zones and the impact of that service on nurses themselves.

I chose readings and a video explaining the history and purpose of the Geneva Conventions and their premise that all people, civilians, soldiers, and enemy combatants should be given medical care and treated humanely in times of war and conflict. For the average working nurse, these ideals may be brand new. I included two articles of first-hand accounts of nurses working in conflict zones caring for soldiers on both sides. The stories these nurses told were frightening but also reaffirmed their commitment to upholding the ethics and principles of nursing. Both of the articles were by nurses working in Ukraine. The first was from 2014 and the second was from 2022. Both were heartbreaking in many ways.

It is important to me for the students to understand that the Geneva Conventions, as well as the policies of the US military, state that the ONLY criteria for caring for persons during conflicts is need–not race, national origins, political affiliation, sexual orientation or any other category we put humans into–but need.

The last topic that I included was an introduction to the concept of a nurse as a peacebuilder. The information discussed the thesis of building peace through better health. I loved reading about all of the global initiatives of collaborations between nurses and organizations around the world to improve global health which improves lives and, hopefully, will hasten peace.

I got so much out of this project and I hope that my students will be interested in learning more about these topics. For the deliverable in this module, I asked the following questions for the discussion board:

• • How did you feel about learning about the dangers to nurses in combat zones?
  • How would you feel about caring for enemy combatants in war zones?
  • Should the First Convention be upheld in all situations? If not, describe a situation that would justify a different behavior.
  • From the Srof (2022) article on nurses and peacebuilding, discuss one of the examples of how nurses are involved in peacebuilding or describe one of your own choosing.

I am looking forward to implementing this module when I teach the class this summer and hearing what they have to say in their responses. I found this information to be generalizable across all areas of study and feel very honored that I was able to participate in this project. If you get the chance to join this FLC in the future, I can highly recommend it.