Merging time zones: promoting international communication through videoconferencing

Nursing is viewed increasingly from an international perspective. Communication between nurses from different countries and cultures is becoming an important feature of nurses' education as well as their professional lives. While it is often not possible for nurse educators and students to visit their counterparts in other countries, it is possible for them to engage in personal contact and discussion through videoconferencing technology. An exploratory international videoconferencing case-study project, which was undertaken to enable educators to further their knowledge of videoconferencing as a teaching method, and enable students to meet in a videoconference class and discuss common issues in nursing education and practice with their counterparts in another country is presented. Two groups of registered nurse students, one undergraduate and one graduate, from the Department of Nursing, University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA and the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Dublin, Ireland were brought together for one class each. This article presents these case studies in the context of videoconferencing in higher education, describes the practical and pedagogical considerations in implementation and makes recommendations for further use of videoconferencing to foster communication and help students in different countries to develop greater international awareness of nursing practice and health care.