International service learning enhances nurse practitioner students' practice and cultural humility

Abstract

Academic and health care institutions are charged with improving quality-of-care outcomes by creating culturally educated health care professionals to practice in a global health care environment. International short-term service learning experiences provide nurse practitioner students an opportunity to meet clinical competency skills aligned with course curricula. Faculty can directly observe students' clinical practice, and students broaden diagnostic reasoning skills while earning credit for clinical hours. As project and research ideas are formulated, students develop system-level thinking to implement evidence-based practices and disseminate their knowledge and experience of caring for the underserved. Students who participate in service-learning opportunities foster their awareness of cultural humility, easing transition into practice. Some academic institutions established short-term service-learning opportunities for students, and evidence supports faculty and students' sense of well-being after participation. We describe an example of a short-term, international service-learning opportunity in Haiti where students work with an interprofessional team and experience the effect of social determinants of health on delivering quality care.

A Preliminary Study on the Cultural Competence of Nurse Practitioners and Its Affecting Factors

“…Such results could be regarded as a positive phenomenon. Many academic papers have proposed several factors that affect the cultural competence of nurses, including participation in multicultural nursing, ethnic minority background, exchange study, frequency of interacting with culturally different people in the workplace or daily life, education level, experience of caring for multiple ethnic groups [10,28,30], cultural diversity training [29], identical religious beliefs with patients [29], language skills [28,31], cross-cultural communication skills [32,33], clinical experience in foreign countries [34], and ethnocentrism [33]. Additionally, according to Purnell [35], the major influences that shape peoples' worldview and the degree to which they identify with and adhere to their cultural group of origin are called the primary and secondary characteristics of culture.…”

Educational Benefits of an International Service-Learning Course in Honduras for Doctor of Physical Therapy Students

“…Additionally, ISL has demonstrated positive effects on students communication skills, [20][21][22] and in the context of globalization, skilled intercultural communication is essential at home and abroad for effective client-centered care [23,24]. Furthermore, previous research has evidenced the enhancements of clinical reasoning (CR) skills of health professions students participating in ISL [25][26][27].…”