As a Master of Nursing–Family Practice student, Lauren Beaudry realized that she was not only interested in working as a nurse in an international setting, but she wanted to expand her health care skill set to include global health research and program development. Duke’s Master of Science in Global Health helped her fulfill this goal. She completed both her nurse practitioner and global health degrees in 2013.
Beaudry’s main interests lie in family practice and promoting health across the lifespan. She has worked with the geriatric population in South Asia and children and adolescents in South America, ample evidence that she is always excited to travel wherever global health needs take her.
While at DGHI, Beaudry completed her fieldwork experience in Galle, Sri Lanka, where she researched long-term care facilities available to the elderly population. The project involved assessing the types of facilities available, services within the facilities and general demographic data of the elderly citizens who lived at the facilities. The project aligned well with her interest in family health across age ranges.
What Beaudry liked most about the global health program at DGHI was the way it challenged her. She recalls, “The program requires you to develop your own personal research projects and analyze existing data or research.”
Her professors and fellow students were another highlight of Beaudry’s experience at DGHI. “I met lifetime friends in the program who continue to inspire me today,” she reflected. “I was also able to work with experienced faculty across multiple departments, which led to a diverse learning experience.”
Beaudry recently completed a year-long Felsman Fellowship in Lima, Peru, tapping into her passion for family nursing. Launched through Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy, the fellowship focuses on exploring and creating dynamic approaches to caring for vulnerable children and youth.
Beaudry’s project used photography to teach adolescent girls in an urban, underserved region of Lima, Peru about self-care, nutrition and community health. Beaudry said that her fieldwork experience during the global health program prepared her for working in Peru by teaching her to be patient and flexible. “During my time in the field [through DGHI],” she said, “I also gained experience living independently in a developing country and working collaboratively with health professionals in the international setting.”
Currently, Beaudry is working as a family nurse practitioner, completing a residency program within the Community Health System in Austin, Texas. This program prepares nurse practitioners to work with underserved and uninsured patients, which will ultimately help Beaudry to achieve her goal of “working to improve the nursing workforce in underserved settings across the globe.”
Learn more about Beaudry’s work in Peru:
- Read her blog
- Read “Beaudry’s Global Health Aspirations Ignited by Felsman Fellowship,” published by the Duke School of Nursing in February 2015
