Adult Learners in a Short Term Cultural Immersion Experience: Implications for Nurse Practitioner Students

Cultural understanding and respect are essential when attempting to enact improvements that are intended to enhance the health and welfare of society’s citizens.  It is critical that nurse practitioners acquire and incorporate a deep understanding of cultural differences to become more effective in their various roles. 

     Education, through standard routes of reading and discussion, can help to inform others about cultural differences.  Direct exposure can also greatly enhance one’s worldview, creating a more open and honest dialogue between cultures.  People with international experience report a growth in substantive knowledge, perceptual understanding, personal growth, and global perspective which they are able to share with others (Cross, 1998). 

     Cultural immersion may result in a transformative learning process by which people can “transform their taken for granted frames of reference to make them more inclusive, discriminating, open, emotionally capable of change, and reflective so that they may generate beliefs and opinions that will prove more true or justified to guide action” (Mezirow, 2000, p. 8).

      In the spring of 2006, a group of students completed a graduate course at a rural university in northeastern U.S.  The course included weekly preparatory classes prior to a two week immersion experience in central Mexico. 

      This mixed method study utilized pre- and post-travel questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews to examine the ways in which participants perceived that the study abroad graduate course has influenced their cultural awareness, comfort, sensitivity, and understanding.   The study further explored the perceived influence of the experience on the participants’ professional practice and personal life.  Semi-structured interviews were conducted on a sub-set of the original participants nearly four years following completion of the course.  Themes that emerged include: Realizing Goals and Resolving Conflicts; Growing through Interactions; and Exploring Perceived Influences.

      The study identified transformative changes in beliefs and practice as they relate to cultural awareness, comfort, sensitivity, and understanding. This study suggests that a short term cultural immersion experience offered a powerful and quality educational experience that may offer an alternative to longer term study abroad immersion experiences for adult learners, and can be an excellent teaching modality for nurse practitioner students.