Reflective practice in nurse education: a step towards equity in education and health care

In the past, the Australian health care system, whose mainstream services are essentially monocultural, has not always successfully met the needs of clients from a variety of cultural groups. Entry of more young immigrant people into the essential health services is one strategy which may assist in bringing positive benefits to health care consumers from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESB). For NESB students, however, the tertiary education experience frequently produces inequities similar to those encountered by NESB consumers of health care, and failure rates of these students are often disproportionately high. This paper describes the process of reflective practice used to investigate the needs of NESB students enrolled in the first year of an undergraduate nursing degree, and the strategies subsequently initiated to improve educational outcomes for these students. In terms of academic success, outcomes for NESB students involved in the investigation were markedly improved in comparison to the previous year. More importantly, the project fostered reflection on teaching practices, and led to modifications which, although small, represented a positive step towards equity.