Nursing as universal and recognisable: Nursing students' perceptions of learning outcomes from intercultural peer learning webinars: A qualitative study

Background: Nursing students need to be prepared for the increasingly culturally diverse health care. Therefore, providing students with international perspectives remains the mission of higher education. However, given the logistic and financial constraints, not all students will be able to travel... Full description

Background: Nursing students need to be prepared for the increasingly culturally diverse health care. Therefore, providing students with international perspectives remains the mission of higher education. However, given the logistic and financial constraints, not all students will be able to travel overseas for their international experiences. A feasible alternative to study abroad is internationalisation-at-home where intercultural dimensions are incorporated into curriculum, without students leaving their home universities. This paper presents findings from a collaboration between nursing programmes in Sweden and Hong Kong. The aim of the project was to explore how undergraduate nursing students' perceived achieved learning outcomes after participating in a web-based intercultural peer-learning intervention. Methods: A qualitative and interpretative design was adopted to capture undergraduate nursing students' experiences of internationalisation at home via webinars. We used convenience sampling and recruited ten undergraduate nursing students from each university. The students were assigned a generic patient case that they discussed and reflected on during three webinars. Data were collected by students´ reflective journals and focus group interviews. Analysis of data followed the principles for thematic networks. Results: In exploring how undergraduate nursing students' perceived learning outcomes after participating in a web-based intercultural peerlearning intervention the global theme, nursing as universal and recognisable, emerged from the data. Recognition of the global theme aroused from two organisational themes; mirroring nursing through an intercultural lens and reflecting on personal action and the action of others. Conclusions: Developing an understanding of nursing as universal and recognisable has implications for nursing students as it supports not only a willingness to work abroad, but also preparedness to care for a diverse population. Therefore, the use of web-based learning activities allow new effective approaches to internationalisation at home programmes and needs to be further developed and implemented in nursing