Loma Linda University School of Nursing celebrated the final session of its successful Thailand cohort of the international master’s program with a recognition ceremony held Feb. 4.

The recognition ceremony was held in the campus church at Mission College, Thailand, which has also served as the host for the LLUSN master’s degree program. This was the final program for the 22 nurses from 12 different countries.

The off-campus master’s degree program is one of two that the School of Nursing has running concurrently — one in Thailand and one in South Africa.

The program was designed to occur over four years with four sessions of at least a month, each at a distant location. Faculty taught two-week sessions to instruct the students, who could complete their coursework and send it via e-mail to the course instructors.

Patricia Jones, Ph.D., R.N., director of the office of international nursing, has spent most of her career in Asia developing nursing schools and feels very connected to the issue of preparing nurses beyond a bachelor’s degree.

“The need for this program has existed for a long time,” Jones says.

“The impact of this program is so great, but perhaps the greatest satisfaction of all is seeing positive changes in the students. Education is empowerment. Seeing all of these graduates empowered for the future — there’s hardly any greater reward.”

According to Jones, one of the biggest hurdles that the program had in getting off of the ground was finances.

“The need for qualified faculty at many of our international institutions has always been present,” says Jones. “Finances are always an issue, but Loma Linda was presented with this need and it’s a need that we are uniquely qualified to fill.”

The Chan Shun Foundation, the Hilde family, Help International, the Nelson–Keller International Scholarship Fund, and other friends of the School of Nursing soon made it clear that they would support the program financially.

“The opportunity to be a part of this program over the last four years was very unique,” says Elizabeth Bossert, D.N.S., R.N., associate dean of the graduate program. “To meet these students and be able to give them a chance to get a master’s in nursing from Loma Linda made everything that we did worthwhile. It will make such a difference for each of the students, and for their countries.”

Many of the nurses were from Adventist institutions overseas; however, a few nurses were chosen as representatives from their country’s government.

“It means a lot to me to be a graduate of Loma Linda, because God made it possible for me to be a student here,” says Jyothi Christian, a nurse from India, who also served as the class president. “He didn’t bring me to Loma Linda, but He brought Loma Linda to me.”

YuQin Pan, a nurse from China, also was encouraged by the program.

“I’m very proud of being a graduate student of LLU,” she says, “but I think that tomorrow, LLU will be very proud of us for being their students. We are going to do a lot to contribute to society, the patient, and to the people around us.”