International clinical placements can develop greater awareness and help students form realistic strategies for using their nursing skills globally. Pre-placement training in cultural awareness and health system realities, along with strong supervisory support, is critical to success.
Background:
The effective delivery of health care to the growing multicultural population within Australia is a challenge for the nursing profession. A breakdown in cross-cultural communication and understanding, which stems from the tendency of nurses to project their own culturally specific values and behaviors onto patients and colleagues from other countries, can contribute significantly to non-compliance in migrant populations and conflict in collegial relationships.
Method:
The Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence-Revised was administered to Australian undergraduate nursing students immediately before, immediately after, and 12 months after returning from international clinical placement. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential functions of SPSS.
Results:
Overall cultural competence increased immediately following the placement and was sustained over time. However, there were significant differences among the five constructs measured.
Conclusion:
International clinical placements enhance cultural competence but targeted activities need to be undertaken pre-placement to develop specific aspects, in particular cultural desire.
[
J Nurs Educ
. 2019;58(1):17–26.]
Participants desired a different relative mix of attributes in their nurse managers, with Western Australian respondents most likely to indicate that transformational leadership contributed most to managerial effectiveness. Tanzanian nurse managers were most likely to advocate transactional leadership, whereas Singaporean nurse managers' views were located somewhere between. Given that these perceptions are valid, the content and curricula of management-development courses need to be cognisant of the cultural backgrounds of participants. WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE TOPIC? Views differ as to the extent to which the criteria for management effectiveness are broadly universal or contingent on culture. This applies to the area of nurse management as it does to healthcare management in general. WHAT DOES THIS PAPER ADD? It is demonstrated that each of the three quite different countries or states considered identified a distinctive combination of attributes as desirable, with the nurse managers of Western Australia most likely to favour a transformational style of leadership, those from Tanzania a transactional leadership style and those from Singapore somewhere in between. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTITIONERS? Given the country- or state-specific desire for a different relative mix of attributes in their nurse managers, management educators in Australia need to ensure that the content and curricula of their courses are cognisant of the cultural backgrounds of their students. There are also important lessons to be taken on board regarding recruitment of nurses into management positions in terms of each of the four dimensions considered, particularly in terms of desirable personality characteristics and beliefs and values.
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