TY - JOUR
T1 - Seeing with new eyes : the meaning of an immersion experience in Bangladesh for undergraduate senior nursing students
AU - Maltby, Hendrika J.
AU - Abrams, Sarah
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Nurses must provide culturally appropriate care. A powerful strategy to enhance cultural competency is immersion. This can increase awareness of personal beliefs, values, behaviors, and learning from clients. A three week immersion experience for 17 senior undergraduate nursing students was organized in partnership with the Independent University, Bangladesh. Working with interpreters, students learned about people and healthcare through interviews and site visits. The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover the meaning of the immersion experience for nursing students through their reflective journals. These were thematically analyzed and four themes emerged: Beginning to See, Thinking about the Seen, Wanting to Change the Seen, and Transformed by the Seen. These themes combine into a framework that has been tentatively titled, Seeing Through New Eyes and will be further developed on future trips. Achieving cultural competency is a complex, long-term process that can be intensified with immersion experiences.
AB - Nurses must provide culturally appropriate care. A powerful strategy to enhance cultural competency is immersion. This can increase awareness of personal beliefs, values, behaviors, and learning from clients. A three week immersion experience for 17 senior undergraduate nursing students was organized in partnership with the Independent University, Bangladesh. Working with interpreters, students learned about people and healthcare through interviews and site visits. The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover the meaning of the immersion experience for nursing students through their reflective journals. These were thematically analyzed and four themes emerged: Beginning to See, Thinking about the Seen, Wanting to Change the Seen, and Transformed by the Seen. These themes combine into a framework that has been tentatively titled, Seeing Through New Eyes and will be further developed on future trips. Achieving cultural competency is a complex, long-term process that can be intensified with immersion experiences.
KW - cultural competence
KW - education_nursing
KW - nursing students
KW - transcultural nursing
UR - http://handle.westernsydney.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:43880
U2 - 10.2202/1548-923X.1858
DO - 10.2202/1548-923X.1858
M3 - Article
SN - 1548-923X
VL - 6
JO - International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship
JF - International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship
IS - 1
M1 - 33
ER -