Learning and Helping: Benefits of International Nurse Practitioner Student Experiences

Service learning, international, capacity building, cultural competence, nurse practitioner education, Central America, graduate nursing, nursing clinical The increasing diversity of the U.S. population (Passel & Cohn, 2008) requires a culturally sensitive health care workforce. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2011) addresses the need to provide culturally sensitive care and suggests clinical experiences in graduate core curriculum to prepare advance practice nurses to work with these diverse populations. Cultural competence is defined as the attitudes, knowledge, and skills necessary for providing quality care to diverse populations (AACN, 2009). Campinha-Bacote and Munoz (2001) describe the development of cultural competence as having five components: cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skill, cultural encounter, and cultural desire. Although cultural competence is often conceptualized as an end point or goal, it is more useful to recognize it as an ongoing iterative process (Clark et al., 2011). Schools of nursing have integrated opportunities for students to develop cultural competence through a variety of modalities (Lipson & Desantis, 2007). One of these modalities is an immersion experience in which students are engaged in a culture different than their own. Abstract The increasing diversity of the U.S. population requires a culturally sensitive health care workforce. This article discusses the planning, implementation, and evaluation of an international clinical experience designed to promote cultural awareness and enhance the clinical skills of nurse practitioner students. The experience was unique in that the program addressed the immediate health care needs of a rural Honduran population while also collaborating with a local capacity building project. Continuity of care was addressed by including professionals from the local health care system when providing care in the schools and clinics. Student and faculty advocacy for building a local hospital supported the community’s ability to meet its own health care needs. Student, faculty, and community partner evaluations indicated that the program was effective in developing student clinical practice skills while meeting the needs of the international community. www.ojccnh.org