ASU and the University of Guanajuato in Mexico have signed an agreement to promote healthcare research between the two countries.
Carol Baldwin, associate professor in the College of Nursing and Healthcare Innovation, first met with Sergio Arias-Negrete, director of International Affairs at the University of Guaranjuato, and Sergio Márquez-Gamiño, a professor at the University of Guanajuato, about a year ago to discuss the possible research collaborations for the two universities.
“With this agreement, deans from different colleges can communicate with each other and general conversations can open up between the two schools,” Baldwin said. “Most of our Mexican-American citizens come from Guanajuato and Sonora, so that is why we chose the University of Guanajuato.”
Baldwin said this agreement will help nurses, physicians and psychologists assess Spanish-speaking patients.
ASU President Michael Crow and Dr. Arturo Lara López, the Rector General for the University of Guanajuato, signed the agreement last week.
Baldwin helped develop a university-to-university relationship with the University of Guanajuato through collaborative research and conferences.
The two universities will focus mainly on health care issues but will exchange ideas on the subjects of engineering, biosciences, art, law and social work.
Baldwin said there are 17 nursing schools in Mexico that offer four-year degree programs. The University of Guanajuato has four of them, she said.
Baldwin’s research focuses on sleep disorders, quality of life and folk practices to reduce sleep disorders, primarily among the Latino population. She researched a Spanish translation of a sleep measure for Spanish-speaking Mexican-Americans and residents of Guanajuato to translate the study from English to Spanish.
“Little is known about sleep disorders among Spanish-speaking people because there were no valid or reliable sleep measures,” she said. “My team and I have worked between our two universities to develop a measure that will be useful for the sleep assessment of Mexicans and the Mexican-Americans in Arizona.”
ASU also held evidence-based practice conferences and workshops throughout the past year in Mexico, teaching nurses, physicians, nursing students and other healthcare workers at the University of Guanajuato the best and newest healthcare practices.
Bernadette Melnyk, the dean for the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation, said in a press release that the benefits from this agreement will be felt from a broader perspective.
“I am very excited that we now have a formal collaboration with the University of Guanajuato. The research, scholarship and evidence-based practice initiatives that we have and will continue to build together will enhance the science and quality of care for the people in Mexico and Arizona.”
Reach the reporter at allison.carlin@asu.edu.
