Back in the sultanate

MUSCAT, Sultanate of Oman—My Christmas holiday was cut short slightly by the need to be in Oman on 2 January. This is my second visit to the sultanate, and I remain impressed by the religious tolerance and relative freedom I observe here, compared with some other parts of the Middle East I have visited. Also, compared with last time, the January weather has been very pleasant, making it possible to walk and even run in the evenings. My last visit here was at the height of their summer when any outside activity is almost unbearable. Virtually all Omanis are Muslim, and minarets and mosques are much in evidence. The call to prayer goes out regularly.

Minaret at Mutrah souk
(market) near Muscat.

Examining at Sultan Qaboos University

I have been here as an external examiner at the Sultan Qaboos University College of Nursing, located at the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital. The college is a cultural melting pot of nationalities with the staff composed of local Omanis, Jordanians, Filipinos, Ugandans, Indians, and at least one Pakistani. Normally, when I work as an external examiner, the job entails reviewing the processes used to examine students, looking at examination content, and assessing how well standards are being met.

All of that is part of my role here, but external examiners are also expected to participate in conducting final examinations of the students. Two days are spent in the hospital listening to students presenting clinical cases and observing them performing a clinical procedure. One day is spent taking part in the oral examinations. It’s very stressful for the students, exhausting for the examiners, and bears no resemblance to what I am used to back home. I am uncomfortable in the clinical areas, as I feel my presence is an intrusion into patient privacy. However, the role of external examiners is explained and, together with previous examiners, I have been able to persuade the college to minimize the time we spend at bedsides.

Aerial walkway at the university.

When I am overseas and invited to visit clinical areas, I invariably refuse, unless I have some specific function there that is related to teaching or research. Nevertheless, my time here in the hospital, as in my previous visit, was informative. Sickle cell disease is very common in Oman. The problem, as with many Arabic and Muslim populations, is consanguineous marriage. Health education advice and genetic counseling is provided in an effort to eradicate the disease, but preference for cousin marriage—a very strong cultural drive to keep things “in the family”—is hard to stop. Recessive carriers are so common that marrying outside of the family is no guarantee of not having children with sickle cell disease.

A resolution and an anniversary

My new year’s resolution, not the first time I have made this one, is to read more, and I made a good start over Christmas with The Alzheimer Conundrum by Margaret Lock. Lock is a social scientist who, equipped with a thorough knowledge of the literature, investigates theories about Alzheimer’s disease by interviewing some of the key researchers. Essentially, causes of Alzheimer’s disease—as opposed to correlates—remain controversial.

The Journal of Advanced Nursing celebrates 40 years this year—our “JANiversary”—and we will run a series of editorials throughout the year reflecting on the first issue and key papers from the first volume. These will be available to download free from our website for a few weeks. You may wish to read my January editorial which reflects on 40 years of JAN.

After leaving Oman, I return to the UK for 10 days, after which I travel to the Netherlands and then almost directly to Taiwan. My trip to the Far East will be a special one because, for the first time in many years, my wife will accompany me. Because it will be her first visit to Taiwan, it is causing great excitement among my colleagues there, as only a few have met her. On this occasion, I may not be the VIP.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

Middle East to UK to Far East

HONG KONG, SAR, China—I am always happy to visit a new country, and, last week, I was in Oman for the first time. I was examining at the College of Nursing at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat. Muscat, located on the northeast coast of Oman, faces the Gulf of Oman, which separates the Persian Gulf to the north from the Arabian Sea to the south.

I have to stoop to superlatives to describe the weather. The temperature was over 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit), with humidity that exceeded anything I have experienced in the Far East and Southeast Asia. Leaving any air-conditioned building was like being hit in the face with a wet, warm sponge. One evening, at an outdoor cocktail party, I decided to check my phone for messages, and the phone, which had been in my air-conditioned room for hours, simply started dripping with water. I survived and even managed to run, at 0530, but my GPS watch was a victim of the humidity and stopped working—permanently.

The view from my hotel in Oman.

Sultan Qaboos

Sultan Qaboos University is enormous and located on the same campus as Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH). Together, they serve as a major centre of medical and nursing education for the region. My own University of Hull has a long-standing relationship with both the College of Nursing and the hospital. One of my colleagues at Hull was a recent examiner at SQUH; colleagues from SQUH visit Hull and our local hospitals—my daughter has looked after them on the local cardiothoracic intensive care unit; and, over the next few years, we plan to take several cohorts of staff members into our post-registration, undergraduate degree program me.

In Oman, I met members of a recent delegation to Hull, who enthused about the personal and detailed care they received while at Hull. Although they visited many centres in the UK, they chose us because of our hospitality—crucial in Arab culture—and we have my colleague, Jeremy Jolley, PhD, RN, international coordinator, to thank for this. Jeremy preceded me as examiner at the Sultan Qaboos University College of Nursing, and his legendary sense of humour and easy way with international colleagues meant I had a lot to live up to. I don’t yet know if I passed the test, but will conclude I did if I am invited back.

New friends

I was not examining alone; I was reunited with my colleague from Bahrain, Seamus Cowman, PhD, RN, FAAN, head of nursing at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland–Medical University of Bahrain. Also, I was delighted to meet, for the first time, Marilyn Lotas, PhD, RN, FAAN, associate professor, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, and Shadia Yousuf, PhD, RN, assistant professor, King Abdulaziz University Faculty of Nursing, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, who gave me news about two of my previous PhD students, now working in Jeddah.

We examined the students in the clinical areas, presenting patient cases and interacting with patients, and following up with a series of very demanding oral examinations. We do nothing like this in the United Kingdom and, while I questioned the value and sustainability of some of the examination procedures (suitable for small numbers but probably unworkable for large numbers), I also wondered if we were not a bit “soft” on our own students.

Professor Cowman and I with male nursing students in Oman.

Hong Kong … again

I returned to the UK for a day to remind my wife and family what I look like and then left for Hong Kong. This week, I am working for the University Grants Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR). Specifically, I am serving on the humanities and social sciences committee, reviewing research grant proposals related to health.

The view from my hotel in Hong Kong.

I know Hong Kong well and have many friends and colleagues to see. Last night, I went to one of the best places here to get a haircut, the YMCA Salisbury Hotel. If your image of the YMCA is one of old sports halls with table tennis, pool, and a song by Village People, think again. The YMCA has two very good hotels here, and I often use them. In a few weeks, on the way back from Australia, I will be staying at one of them with my 15-year-old daughter.

The haircut at the YMCA reminds me of one of my funniest moments in Hong Kong. The first time I decided to have my hair cut there, I went in and an older Hong Kong lady was sweeping the hair from the floor. Nobody else was there. I asked about a haircut and, with no English, she pointed to me to sit down and proceeded to cut my hair—very well. I asked about the cost, and she said “one hundred dolla’,” meaning HK$100, which I gave her. She put the note in her pocket, and I thought no more about it until my next visit a few weeks later. The lady was still sweeping the floor, but there was also a young man there, who proceeded to cut my hair. At the end, I took out a HK$100 note and handed it to him. “No,” he said. ‘You must pay at the shop,” and handed me a bill for HK$110. I stole a glance at the hair-sweeping lady on the way out. I think I saw her smiling!

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.