Student Experiences in Transcultural Nursing

A comparison of an international experience for nursing students in developed and developing countries

Theoretical perspectives and approaches to transcultural nursing have been developed and there are different options for teaching transcultural care. The opportunity for nursing students to gain healthcare experience in another country is one option. This article reports a study undertaken in Northern Ireland to evaluate outcomes of a 3-month international experience for undergraduate nursing students (n=74) and to assess differences between the experiences in developed and developing countries. Data were collected by questionnaire. The findings indicate a high impact on students' international perspective and career development. Students' understanding of cultural and political issues within Northern Ireland was enhanced.

Exploring the factorial composition of the transcultural self-efficacy tool

The factorial composition of the transcultural self-efficacy tool (TSET) was explored using data from 1,260 culturally diverse undergraduate nursing students. The TEST was an 83-item questionnaire designed to measure and evaluate students' confidence for performing general transcultural nursing skills among diverse client populations. A principal component analysis, with the varimax rotation, yielded nine factors: recognition, kinship and social factors, professional nursing care, cultural background and identity, lifecycle transitional phenomena, awareness of cultural gap, communication, self-awareness and appreciation. The results indicate that the TEST assesses the multidimensional nature of transcultural self-efficacy and taps the three dimensions of learning: cognitive, practical and affective.

Nurses' descriptions of caring for culturally diverse clients

The nursing profession has responded to today's cultural diversity through theory development, association statements, research, and inclusion of cultural content in nursing curricula. This qualitative study was completed to explore whether this increased attention to cultural diversity is resulting in culturally sensitive nursing care. In this preliminary description of cross-cultural care, eight recently graduated nurses were each interviewed twice. Caring for culturally diverse clients is reflected by these participants as complex and challenging, due to the interrelatedness of multiple personal and contextual factors. Nurses' commitment to caring for culturally diverse clients varies, ranging from "resistant" to "generalist" to "impassioned." Contextual factors include the setting of health care, the support of colleagues, the institutional climate, the foundation of education, and the presence of racism. Despite the nursing profession's attention directed toward issues of cultural diversity, it seems that the goal of culturally sensitive care remains a distant ideal.

Summers of No Return: Transforming Care Through a Nursing Field School

Nursing education is developing a wide variety of ways to educate for cultural competence that expedites culture-congruent care and effective diversity management in practice. Using a praxis orientation, this article reports research done on an innovative nursing field school during the past four summers on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Learning context emphasizing formation of a collaborative, caring community is created for 6-week immersion learning experiences during which student groups work with the High Plains Oglala Lakota in tribal programs. Triangulated data based on participant observation and student journals, stories, discussions, interviews, academic coursework, and evaluation surveys provide a comprehensive record of complex and multifaceted field school and immersion learning processes. Through collaboration with students, Diekelmann's "Concernful Practices" are tested and adapted for fit as a framework for organizing and examining the field school experience, as well as the practice of health care across cultures.

Nursing, a bridge to peace in our region: opinions on mutual co-operation between Israeli and Palestinian professional nurses and nurse educators

The purpose of this study was to assess the activities and future direction of mutual co-operation of professional nurses from Israel and Judea and Samaria. Questionnaires were distributed to the participants, nurse educators and professional nurses from Judea and Samaria who were attending a workshop in clinical instruction at the Assaf HaRofeh School of Nursing, in Israel. Most of the nurses polled were interested in continued educational dialogue and expanded educational programmes in various nursing specialties both in education and service. The areas that received priority included: intensive care, operating room and emergency room nursing. Areas that received lower priorities included; midwifery, geriatrics and nephrology nursing. The participants expressed positive reactions to continued joint educational activities such as full length courses, workshops, day seminars and joint educational projects. The results showed an overwhelming interest for continued professional ties. Areas in the fields of clinical expertise and nursing education reflected the needs of their respective communities.

Cultural discovery: an innovative philosophy for creative learning activities

The purpose of this article is to describe a philosophical approach for integrating general transcultural nursing concepts and skills within a first semester associate degree nursing course. The authors wished to design a learning activity that would provide meaningful experiences and stimulate critical thinking among nontraditional, culturally diverse students who must learn to care for many clients of diverse cultural backgrounds. With a focus on culture, aging, and health, this creative learner-centered approach, called Cultural Discovery, emphasizes learning outcomes in both the cognitive and affective domains. Cultural Discovery includes several components in conjunction with the Leininger Acculturation Health Care Assessment Enabler for Cultural patterns in Traditional and Nontraditional Lifeways, specifically: background reading assignments, classroom activity component, collaborative library introductory program, videotape program, interview, literature review, reflection, and written paper assignment. Implemented over an eight week period, Cultural Discovery assisted beginning nursing students to systematically conduct a basic general cultural assessment, identify some similarities and differences among individuals within cultural groups, distinguish between varying dimensions of acculturation, and discover the importance of culturally congruent nursing care.

Learning About Another Culture: Project and Curricular Reflections

Over the past two years, an innovative collaborative project in the care of Ethiopian Jews who immigrated to Israel has been carried out. In this project, both students and faculty joined in activities of research and practice through a clinic at a trailer court that houses 96 Ethiopian immigrant families. This project brought about several favorable changes: a) Health of the underprivileged and underserved was enhanced through bi-weekly services provided to the poor and sick trailer court inhabitants; b) An educational program for learning in a cross-cultural community setting was developed. This curricula advanced recognition of the growing cultural and racial diversity of both individual and family lifestyles, as well as allowed for learning events that are based on substantive contact with, or participation by, persons at health risk; c) An educational milieu that fosters the use of research-based interventions was developed. This article describes the cross-cultural educational project which was designed as a pilot for a new baccalaureate program in nursing, and critiques it based on the criteria of the five major concepts--primacy of the teacher-student relationship, social responsibility, centrality of caring, interpretive stance and theoretical pluralism, proposed by the promoters of the "curriculum revolution."

A contrast of mothering behaviors in women from Korea and the United States

In both the United States and Korea, culture heavily influences a mother's behavior toward her infant. Differences between these two cultures are explored, based on the author's experiences and work in both environments. This comparison includes a number of points of departure. The American culture encourages autonomous and independent behaviors from infants, whereas in the Korean culture, mothers tend to view infants as passive and dependent. American mothering is individually fashioned and relies on the expertise of health care providers. Conversely, the Korean culture is highly ritualistic, so mothering is molded more by societal rules than by individual design, and professional advice is less sought for guidance than is folklore information. American mothers tend to rear their infants in a nuclear family setting, whereas Korean mothers rear their infants in an extended family or at least in a highly social environment. Implications for American nurses who provide perinatal care for Korean immigrant women are discussed.