The Needs of Students and Faculty Participating in Intercultural Clinical Immersion Experiences Amanda Houle SN; Leah Mott SN; and Karen Nakano SN; Rosemary Jadack PhD, RN; Debra Jansen PhD, RN College of Nursing and Health Sciences University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire Introduction Preliminary Findings At our university, undergraduate nursing students are able to take part in the following 7-10 day immersive nursing clinical experiences. Hospital/public health, Indian Reservation in South Dakota Perinatal clinic in Texas, on the border with Mexico Palliative care hospital and orphanage in El Salvador Community Healthcare on migrant farms in Wisconsin Experiences such as these have been shown to: Increase knowledge of specific cultures Increase confidence in caring for clients from diverse backgrounds Preparation: “They prepared us in the fact that there’s really no way to prepare.” “I guess just having an open mindset like I said, because you won’t have any ability to know what to expect because we all had different experiences.” “What might have been better was to have students from previous groups…talk about some of the things that might happen.” Culture: “I liked the people a lot down there. Their culture is so much more open and friendly and welcoming. I just like interacting with the people and being able to teach them and have them be appreciative of what we’re teaching them. The host families and everybody around there is just amazing.” “Don’t let a language barrier hinder you from going.” “It was difficult. The language barrier was just really difficult in both clinicals.” “I think it’s important for everyone to get together and sort of talk about their experiences…in order to get people to kind of realize how important it is for us to be doing things for the less privileged people.” Instruments Demographic data: Pertinent demographic data: age, prior travel abroad experience, and language fluency 17 questions in which participants describe: Clinical and cultural experience Perceived needs before, during, and after the immersion Recommendations for future immersion participants Impact of clinical immersion on participants’ worldview Purpose Identify the unique needs of students and faculty before, during, and after participation in nursing clinical immersion experiences. Procedure Semi-structured interviews were conducted by the undergraduate student researchers Informed consent given as per the IRB-approved protocol Interviews were audio recorded with permission and transcribed Content analysis Researchers will segment the transcribed interviews into themes. Themes will be reviewed and categories created based on similarities in the data. Interrater reliability for development of the themes and categories will be calculated. Self-Discovery: “Just being out of my comfort zone and growing from that I think was the best.” “It was a lot to process. And some of it was really sad, some of it was really happy, I learned a lot.” “I’m so privileged here that I have a house, I have water, I have family, I have parents even, it just makes me really open my eyes and I’m like thankful that I have all these things, but also I wanna like do more for them. I wanna keep traveling.” “I think I connected spiritually in a new way when I attended the sweat. That was beautiful and very moving.” Application in Future Clinicals: “How you approach people of different cultures than yours, I learned how to do that when I was in these immersion clinicals, rather than being shocked when I look at the chart and it’s someone who you’re not expecting to see.” “It definitely opened my eyes to a lot of things I wasn’t aware of before with culture and with the whole birthing process.” Theoretical Framework Purnell Model for Cultural Competence (Purnell, 2003): Provides a framework to assist in understanding and learning about culture and in providing culturally competent and holistic care. Assumes that learning a culture is an ongoing process that primarily occurs through encounters with the culture. Method Sample & Setting Convenience Sample N = *18 undergraduate nursing students n = 12 to Indian reservation in South Dakota n = 6 to perinatal clinic in Texas n = 6 to hospital/orphanage in El Salvador n = 2 to migrant farms in Wisconsin N = 2 faculty Participants recruited via e-mail. *Some students participated in more than one immersion experience. Conclusions We will continue to collect and analyze data. Findings will be useful to students and faculty when preparing for, enhancing, and designing future intercultural immersion experiences. Acknowledgment Financial support was provided through a University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire Faculty/Student Research Collaboration Grant