The Oklahoma Nurses Association is organizing a delegation to visit Cuba for the purpose of meeting with our Cuban counterparts and learning about the role of Cuban nurses in health care delivery. MSc. Idalmis Infante-Ochoa, President of the Cuban Society of Nursing, has invited ONA to visit, December 5 – 10, 2016. As Chief Executive Officer of the Oklahoma Nurses Association, I am honored to lead this delegation and invite you to join me in this unique opportunity.
The goals of the delegation and initial topics of discussion for the meetings and site visits have been preliminarily identified as the following:
*Meet with the Cuban Nursing Society
*Panel presentation overview of the Cuban Health Care System
*Meet with nurses and discuss their role at the tertiary care level of medical attention in Cuba
*Visit the National School of Public Health (ENSAP) to discuss post-graduate curriculum designed for nurses in Cuba
*Visit a community-based Policlinico and Family Doctor/Nurse clinics and meet with nurse executives, staff nurses and supervisors
*Visit a nursing home to learn about the role of nurses in hospice care
*Visit Hogar Materno Infantil, a maternity clinic, to learn about the role of nursing in maternity care
Delegates will participate in professional meetings and site visits each day; the interests and composition of the team will determine the final meetings and topics for discussion. Please see the attached Preliminary Schedule of Activities.
Since it’s founding in 1976, under the Nation Council of the Scientific Society of Public Health of Cuba, The Cuban Society of Nursing has become the governing body for nursing in Cuba. Their primary focus has been on the advancement of the practice of nursing in Cuba. The opportunity for you to learn about Oklahoma Nurses Association nursing practices in Cuba, through observation of your Cuban counterparts in their working environment; experiencing how they address common challenges with limited resources, will give a perspective unattainable though any other avenue.
Although the US and Cuba are moving rapidly towards normalizing relations, travel to Cuba remains restricted by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Treasury Department. This delegation will be travelling under OFAC regulation 31 CFR §515.564 General license for professional research. This license supports our access to the highest level professionals in Cuba.
Each member of the delegation must be in compliance with the General License issued by OFAC authorizing full-time professionals to conduct a full-time schedule of research activities in Cuba with the likelihood that this research will be publicly disseminated. To ensure compliance, each participant in the program will be required to provide a resume and sign an affidavit attesting to his or her status as a full-time professional, paid or unpaid, in the field of research.
For those interested in sharing your experience in Cuba, a parallel program of people to people activities will be developed for guests accompanying you on this enriching program. Guests will experience the culture and lifestyle of Cuba, through interactions with the people of Havana.
Travel arrangements will be arranged through our cooperation with Professionals Abroad, a division of Academic Travel Abroad. The 60-year-old organization handles the logistical arrangements for prestigious organizations, such as National Geographic, The Smithsonian, The American Museum of Natural History and many top professional associations and universities. Academic Travel Abroad is licensed by the OFAC as a Travel Services Provider for US travel to Cuba. For more information go to: http://www.oklahomanurses.org
