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Charles, Loretta

Nursing

2013

MS

Increasing cultural diversity and a sense of global community has necessitated the introduction of cultural competence in the education of health care providers. Some institutions have utilized cultural immersion programs to address this need of cultural competence. Studies have not yet described what this experience is for Australian nursing students. The purpose of this study is to describe the immersion experience of a group of third year Australian nursing students who participated in a five week cultural immersion program in India. This study found that students experienced a similar progression through stages of cultural competence while participating in the immersion experience and that the research on immersion programs needs to be evaluated to help develop a program that will target these ways of learning to maximize the experience. Additionally, researchers need to focus on what these immersion experiences mean for the host country partners.