Videoconferencing expands nursing students' cultural realm

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Public Health
• Cultural Competence

Background:

• Nurse educators face challenges in providing culturally diverse clinical placements.
• New nursing graduates often lack essential skills for working with diverse populations.
• There is a need to improve cultural awareness and competence in baccalaureate nursing students.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a novel teaching strategy for enhancing cultural awareness in nursing students.
• To increase student exposure and engagement with diverse populations through technology.
• To facilitate the exchange of community health assessments between geographically distant nursing students.

Main Methods:

• A collaborative community health assessment project was designed and implemented by nursing faculty from two schools.
• Videoconferencing was utilized as the primary instructional method.
• Students performed and exchanged community health assessments from diverse populations.

Main Results:

• Videoconferencing facilitated active discussion and exchange of community health assessments between students from distant schools.
• The strategy augmented technology and faculty networking to enhance student learning.
• Students gained exposure to and engaged with geographically and demographically dissimilar populations.

Conclusions:

• The piloted videoconferencing teaching strategy effectively enhanced nursing students' cultural awareness.
• This innovative approach offers a scalable solution for improving cultural competence in nursing education.
• Further research can explore the long-term impact of this strategy on nursing practice.