Ethical Photography While on Study Abroad.

S tudy abroad in nursing education has grown exponentially over the past decade. The literature has a myriad of articles on the influence this type of travel has had on the personal and professional lives of nurses and nursing students as well as on the ‘‘how-to’’ of study abroad. A search of CINAHL for study abroad will yield more than 110 articles. The value of study abroad in nursing has been well established. What is not discussed in any of these articles is ethical photography while on the study abroad trips. Even recent work by Steen and Zdechlik, who describe a semester abroad for nursing students in Uganda, do not discuss this issue. What may be found (rarely) in the nursing literature is a statement about asking for permission to take a photograph and someone’s right to refuse. Collectively, nursing students take thousands of photographs (including selfies) while travelling to document where they have been, what they have done, who they talk to, what they eat, and as part of assignments to be completed during the trip. Most of these students are part of the millennial generation, those aged 20 to 35 years old; 81% of them are on Facebook; and 55% of them have posted a selfie. Thus, many of the photographs taken on study abroad trips are posted on a social media site. The photographs are also used in presentations, shown at friend and family gatherings, and often used as aides-m2moires for students’ journals and travel stories. Saffran stated, ‘‘travel is a powerful teacher, and photography is a potent story-telling tool.’’ Part of our responsibility as nurse educators, however, is tomake certain that the story-telling is in context and not reinforcing cultural stereotypes. Humanitarian aid agencies and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) use photographs for fund raising. As discussed by Kennedy, ‘‘suffering sells, and guilt compels.’’ The pain and suffering seen in photographs are central to humanitarian fundraising efforts as they bring the distant ‘‘other’’ into our homes. The plight of the victims leads those of us in high-income countries to feel guilty and provide funding to the humanitarian agency so that the victim is helped and suffering ends. Much of this is termed poverty porn, images that elicit a deep emotional response based on shock value and presume that those living in poverty are helpless. At worst, these images violate privacy and human dignity and reduce those who are marginalized by poverty to objects of pity. Seear adds that ‘‘people living in povertyIdo not respond to hardship by huddling in huts, waiting desperately for the next planeload of aid workers to arrive. They do the best they can, [and] work hard under terribly difficult circumstances.’’ Many students have been brought up on these images and view study abroad as something more personal than just giving money from a distance. After reading approximately 30 study abroad application essays per year over the past 10 years, the main reasons that students express to go abroad are to develop cultural competency and increase global perspectives. They also want to ‘‘help’’ poor people in developing countries but do not elaborate on what this help entails. Kascak and Dasgupta described 3 common types of photographs that are often shared on social media by students and volunteers who have gone abroad. These are also apt descriptions of the photographs that nursing students take. The suffering other shows people unable or unwilling to care for each other or themselves (true or not), which can justify paternalistic attitudes and policies. These may be similar to the types of photographs used by theNGOs. Nursing students will say ‘‘they shouldI’’ or ‘‘we shouldI’’ when facedwith a powerful situation. For example, in 1 clinic in Bangladesh, the neonatal intensive care is a regular room with beds for the mothers who are usually holding their very ill newborns. The students are adamant that we should donate ‘‘proper isolettes’’ so the babies will survive without understanding that the power goes out on a regular basis, there are no generators, and there may be little follow-up care, particularly in the distant villages.