Abstract
Introduction: Nursing students often have international service-learning (ISL) experiences (Huang et al., 2020; McClure et al., 2020; McKinnon et al., 2022). ISL often includes ethical concerns (Claire et al., 2022; Greig et al., 2022; Rowthorn et al., 2019). Additionally, we do not have strong studies linking ISL to effects on nursing practice later. Many trips show short-term benefits for nurses, but it is unclear whether ISL will improve patient care at home later (Wu et al., 2020).
Purpose Statement: The purpose of this study was to explore the reflections of registered nurses to discover how past ISL influence their current nursing practice.
Procedure: Within a larger mixed-methods study, 12 semi-structured interviews were performed with U.S. RNs who had taken ISL trips during their nursing education. These nurses were asked to reflect upon how ISL in nursing school affects their self-perception and practice now. The interviews were transcribed and uploaded into the NVivo program and coded for themes.
Evaluation Process: This study had approval from the author’s Institutional Review Board and was monitored closely by the author’s dissertation committee. Results were reviewed by a content expert and the findings were shared with participants for member checking.
Participant Information: The twelve interview participants were from five different academic institutions. Their ages ranged from 23 to 47, and the length of time since their ISL in nursing school ranged from two to 25 years. The countries visited included Haiti, Kenya, Nicaragua, Mexico, Western Samoa, and Guatemala.
Results: Codes condensed into four main themes: describing personal benefits, developing a broader worldview, experiencing profound gratitude, and feeling overwhelmed by needs. Participants identified how ISL improved their ability to give patient care and all enthusiastically wanted to see more usage of ISL in educational programs. However, there were several words of caution about these experiences as well, particularly with the theme of “negative aspects of ISL.”
Implications to Nursing: Further conversations are needed for designing ISL for nurses. This study demonstrates that ISL work can have lasting impact on nurses in their clinical practice. Nursing education should establish guidelines for these experiences including ethical and scope-of-practice discussions. Recommended resources include Dainton et al. (2021), Kalbarczyk et al. (2019), and Tracey et al. (2022).
Notes
References:
1. Claire, M. Y., Soule, I., Carrington, N., & Saluta, I. (2022). Ethical global health in nursing education: An integrative review. Nurse Education in Practice, 58, 103263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2021.103263
2. Dainton, C., Gorman, C., Cherniak, W., Lopez, L., & Chu, C. H. (2021). Reliability of the Service Trip Audit Tool to assess the quality of short-term medical missions. International Health, 13(6), 606–614. https://doi.org/10.1093/inthealth/ihaa006
3. Greig, M., Pesut, B., Marck, P., & Burgess, M. (2022). Nursing students’ experiences of moral uncertainty in the context of global health practicums. Nursing Inquiry, 29(3), e12477-n/a. https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.12477
4. Handtke, O., Schilgen, B., & Mosko, M. (2019). Culturally competent healthcare: A scoping review of strategies implemented in healthcare organizations and a model of culturally competent healthcare provision. PloS One, 14(7), e0219971-e0219971. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0219971
5. Huang, C. C., Torres, V., & Jacob, E. (2020). Challenges and lessons learned from short-term medical service trips in global communities. Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 16(8), 573–577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2020.06.016
6. Kalbarczyk, A., Nagourney, E., Martin, N. A., Chen, V., & Hansoti, B. (2019). Are you ready? A systematic review of pre-departure resources for global health electives. BMC Medical Education, 19(1), 166–166. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-019-1586-y
7. McClure, N., Ziegler, C., & Christenbery, T. (2020). Enhancement of the community health nursing student experience: An interdisciplinary global health immersion project. Nurse Educator, 45(2), E15–E16. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNE.0000000000000683
8. McFarland, M., & Wehbe-Alamah, H. B. (2018). Leininger's transcultural nursing: Concepts, theories, research, & practice (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
9. McKinnon, T., McNelis, A. M., de Leon, K., Whitlow, M., & Fitzpatrick, J. J. (2019). Current state of international clinical experiences in US prelicensure nursing programs. Nursing Education Perspectives, 40(5), 291–294. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000563
10. Rowthorn, V., Loh, L., Evert, J., Chung, E., & Lasker, J. (2019). Not above the law: A legal and ethical analysis of short-term experiences in global health. Annals of Global Health, 85(1). https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.2451
11. Tracey, P., Rajaratnam, E., Varughese, J., Venegas, D., Gombachika, B., Pindani, M., Ashbourne, E., & Martiniuk, A. (2022). Guidelines for short-term medical missions: Perspectives from host countries. Globalization and Health, 18(1), 19–19. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-022-00815-7
12. Wu, H., Spadaro, K., Hunker, D. F., & Wolf, D. M. (2020). Impact on Chinese nurses roles after study abroad: An exploratory study. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 10(5). doi: 10.5430/jnep.v10n5p63
Sigma Membership
Non-member
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Mixed/Multi Method Research
Keywords:
Public and Community Health, Cultural Exchange Programs or Study Abroad, Health Equity or Social Determinants of Health, International Service Trips, International Service-Learning, ISL
Recommended Citation
Matthew, Stephanie, "Nurses and International Service Work: Do Short-Term Trips Really Make a Difference?" (2025). International Nursing Research Congress (INRC). 162.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/inrc/2025/presentations_2025/162
Conference Name
36th International Nursing Research Congress
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Seattle, Washington, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Nurses and International Service Work: Do Short-Term Trips Really Make a Difference?
Seattle, Washington, USA
Introduction: Nursing students often have international service-learning (ISL) experiences (Huang et al., 2020; McClure et al., 2020; McKinnon et al., 2022). ISL often includes ethical concerns (Claire et al., 2022; Greig et al., 2022; Rowthorn et al., 2019). Additionally, we do not have strong studies linking ISL to effects on nursing practice later. Many trips show short-term benefits for nurses, but it is unclear whether ISL will improve patient care at home later (Wu et al., 2020).
Purpose Statement: The purpose of this study was to explore the reflections of registered nurses to discover how past ISL influence their current nursing practice.
Procedure: Within a larger mixed-methods study, 12 semi-structured interviews were performed with U.S. RNs who had taken ISL trips during their nursing education. These nurses were asked to reflect upon how ISL in nursing school affects their self-perception and practice now. The interviews were transcribed and uploaded into the NVivo program and coded for themes.
Evaluation Process: This study had approval from the author’s Institutional Review Board and was monitored closely by the author’s dissertation committee. Results were reviewed by a content expert and the findings were shared with participants for member checking.
Participant Information: The twelve interview participants were from five different academic institutions. Their ages ranged from 23 to 47, and the length of time since their ISL in nursing school ranged from two to 25 years. The countries visited included Haiti, Kenya, Nicaragua, Mexico, Western Samoa, and Guatemala.
Results: Codes condensed into four main themes: describing personal benefits, developing a broader worldview, experiencing profound gratitude, and feeling overwhelmed by needs. Participants identified how ISL improved their ability to give patient care and all enthusiastically wanted to see more usage of ISL in educational programs. However, there were several words of caution about these experiences as well, particularly with the theme of “negative aspects of ISL.”
Implications to Nursing: Further conversations are needed for designing ISL for nurses. This study demonstrates that ISL work can have lasting impact on nurses in their clinical practice. Nursing education should establish guidelines for these experiences including ethical and scope-of-practice discussions. Recommended resources include Dainton et al. (2021), Kalbarczyk et al. (2019), and Tracey et al. (2022).
Description
This session explores the long-term personal impact of nursing students participating on international service trips during their nursing school training. Reflections from U.S. RNs will be discussed, with a focus on how international service continues to impact their nursing practice now. Additionally, ethical considerations for cross-cultural service experiences will be discussed and recommendations will be made for creating nursing-specific guidelines for international service work.