Impact of task-driven blended learning on cultural intelligence and intercultural communication competence in nursing...

Intercultural communication and collaboration in healthcare are becoming increasingly essential for addressing complex global health and medical issues. This trend has increased the demands placed on nursing students' cultural intelligence and intercultural communication competence in diverse healthcare settings.

To examine the effectiveness of task-driven blended learning in cultivating nursing students' cultural intelligence and intercultural communication competence.

This quasi-experimental study used cluster randomisation to assign two intact classes to either the intervention or control group. The intervention group received task-driven blended learning developed based on the outcome-based education concept, whereas the control group received conventional blended learning. Participants' cultural intelligence and intercultural communication competence were assessed before and after the intervention using the Cultural Intelligence Scale and the Intercultural Communication Competence Scale, respectively. Analysis of covariance was employed as the primary statistical method to evaluate intervention effects while controlling for baseline scores.

After adjustment for baseline scores, the task-driven blended learning group had significantly higher post-intervention scores than the conventional blended learning group in the overall scores for both cultural intelligence (F = 59.56, P < 0.001, ηₚ² = 0.293) and intercultural communication competence (F = 39.18, P < 0.001, ηₚ² = 0.214). These significant between-group differences were consistent across all subdimensions (all P < 0.001), with the largest effect sizes observed in the motivation dimension of cultural intelligence (ηₚ² = 0.184) and the situational ability dimension of intercultural communication competence (ηₚ² = 0.186).

The task-driven blended learning approach was associated with significant improvements in nursing students' cultural intelligence and intercultural communication competence. These findings suggest that adopting task-driven blended learning in intercultural nursing courses may be a promising approach for supporting cultural competence training and meeting the growing demands of intercultural nursing education.