Analysis of the effectiveness of international nursing practicum over national nursing practicum

Abstract

Objective: This study was conducted to examine the effectiveness of international nursing practicum on self-efficacy, cultural competency, and global competency. Methods: A purposive sampling method was used to collect the data: the participants were nursing students (n=66) who had advanced into the 2nd semester of junior level. For the factor analysis, the results of a questionnaire survey were pooled from the control and experimental groups (n=132). The survey was administered before and after the national and international nursing practicum for the control and experimental groups, respectively. The t-test was used to compare the two groups, and Difference in Difference (DID) was used to determine the true change between before and after the practicum. But if you are describing international nursing practicums and domestic nursing practicums, i.e., many different courses in different countries, and here in Korea in different universities. DID analysis also showed that the level of change before and after each nursing practicum differed significantly between the control and experimental groups. Results: Factor analysis confirmed that the survey questionnaire reliably measured the sub-concepts. The differences in self-efficacy and cultural competency between the two groups were statistically significant before and after the treatment, but DID results were not significant. For global competency, however, both DID and the difference before and after treatment between the two groups were statistically significant. Conclusion: Despite a few study limitations, the innovative study design generated findings that help to fill a large gap in nursing knowledge. Future studies should include a randomized clinical trial to overcome the limitations of sampling bias and generalization of study results.