Grace Tazelaar and Connie Jarlsberg
NCF Missions staff
December, 2011
In June 2011, we sent a survey to Christian nursing school faculty to assess their involvement in missions and for nursing students outside of the U.S.
Our mission in NCF is to help the next generation of missionary nurses with cultural competency and nursing practice in a global society.
Here are the results of our survey:
Of the 94 Christian nursing schools contacted, 22 responses were received (23%). Some of the schools who didn't respond may not have actively been involved in global nursing education. Out of the schools that responded, 4 programs were not involved in global nursing education. This left 18 surveys for analysis.
Only one school required students to have experience outside the U.S., specifically an independent study program for students in their cross-cultural nursing minor. However 17 of 18 schools (94%) give academic credit to students for their experience outside the U.S.
It is nursing faculty at all schools who are involved in planning experiences outside the U.S.:
We found that 50% of nursing faculty that accompany students in their overseas service-learning opportunities had missionary experience ranging from 2-30 years, with 2 more faculty having multiple short-term experiences. Only 6 responses (27%) indicated that accompanying faculty had no international experience.
The data shows that only 4 faculty respondents (18%) obtain licensure in the countries where they take students. It is not possible to ascertain from the data if faculty or their students actually participate in clinical practice while accompanying students overseas.
Experiences for students vary from observation in overseas settings to teaching in community health or provision of health care.
Language barriers are overcome with the assistance of translators, though two of the responding faculty indicate they have language fluency and one school requires students to have level II language proficiency to participate in the overseas experience.
In terms of partnership agreements, nearly half of the schools have agreements with overseas organizations:
In summary, we are pleased to see the engagement of nursing students in overseas mission experiences. However, we are concerned about the lack of foreign licensure and the number of schools who take students abroad with no national partnerships in the host countries. We feel this demonstrates the need for a task force to develop best practices for overseas service learning project.
