Educating undergraduate nursing students abroad

Abstract

Many Canadian nursing programs are offering student opportunities to study abroad as a part of their undergraduate education. This qualitative, descriptive research aims to address a gap in the literature by describing Canadian nursing faculty members’ perspectives on successful teaching methods used in study abroad programs. Five nursing faculty members affiliated with five institutions in Western Canada were interviewed. Two primary themes related to teaching abroad emerged from analysis: (1) pedagogical and theoretical underpinnings, and (2) teaching strategies and activities to facilitate students’ learning. While this research focuses upon describing teaching methods for undergraduate nursing placements, it also includes teaching methods for interdisciplinary, community health promotion and service learning. Teaching abroad is multi-faceted, and occurs in a vast variety of contexts. Findings are to be assessed by the reader for transferability to specific programs.