Rapid Shifting to Deliver High Impact Global Health Education to Meet the Needs of the Times

Podium presentation at the National League of Nursing Education Summit 2023, Las Vegas, NV

The past two years have presented many road bumps for nurse educators to meet the needs of the times and develop critical global public health and intercultural competencies for nursing students at both undergraduate and graduate levels. The purpose of this longitudinal mixed methods study was to evaluate the impact of using an online, virtual immersion with community partners in Oaxaca, Mexico, alongside a classroom curriculum designed to imbed intercultural and personal leadership development within a 4-week experience to meet the needs of the time: response to a global pandemic, structural racism, and coping with high levels of stress and burnout in the nursing profession. Using Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory of Human Development as a framework, the presenters will share lessons learned over the past 2 years in designing and teaching a short course that allows students a high impact global public health immersion during times when students cannot travel, whether that be due to travel restrictions, or constraints imposed by a student’s financial, work, or family responsibilities that make travel abroad impossible. Initial findings suggest that students are able to achieve many global health and intercultural competencies after participating in a short virtual online immersion partnership with Child Family Health International in Oaxaca, Mexico, along with classroom instruction, facilitation, and debriefing with local faculty. This model could offer all students ongoing opportunities to engage in high impact intercultural learning and have greater choice for in person or virtual learning, thereby making international travel experiences more accessible for all students.