Nursing and Globalization in the Americas

Nursing is vital to millions of people worldwide. This book details the ebb and flow of its fascinating history and politics through case studies from Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Authors from across the Americas share findings and explore new thinking about Western hemisphere-specific issues that affect nursing and health care. Using economic globalization as an overarching framework, these cross-national case studies show the strengths and contradictions in nursing, elucidating common themes and examining successes. The partnership of authors shapes a collective understanding of nursing in the Americas and forms a basis for enduring hemisphere-wide academic exchange. Thus, the book offers a new platform for understanding the struggles and obstacles of nursing in a climate of globalization, as well as for understanding nursing's richness and accomplishments. Because politics, economics, health, and nursing are inextricably linked, this volume critically explores the intersections among political economies and nursing and health care systems. The historical and contextual background allows readers to make sense of how and why nursing in the Americas has taken on its present form.

Karen Lucas Breda is Associate Professor at the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut. She holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, and a B.S.N. and M.S.N. from Boston University School of Nursing. First as a Fulbright Scholar to Italy, and later as a fellow with the Giovanni Agnelli Foundation in Turin, Breda studied the political economy of health care in the Italian National Health System. Her interests in cross-national health care, globalization, and the world system have infused her scholarship and teaching for nearly two decades, and her specialization in critical political economy and cultural anthropology allows her to bring multidisciplinary analyses to her work. Breda's clinical background is in pediatrics, mental health, and culturally competent community nursing. She brings a critical and anthropological lens to her teaching and scholarship. She is project director of the grant-funded Project Horizon, a community service learning initiative at the University of Hartford, College of Education, Nursing and Health Professions, Department of Nursing. Project Horizon links students, faculty, and staff from across the university with community partners to co-create health, social, and cultural advocacy initiatives. Breda is a local, national, and international presenter, a successful grant writer, and an advocate for urban families and children living in poverty. She maintains her areas of expertise through reading, conference attendance and presentation, and professional networking, especially with colleagues from diverse professions and disciplines.