The student/faculty international exchange: responding to the challenge of developing a global perspective in nursing education.

A student/faculty international exchange is an effective means for nursing programs to respond to the challenge of developing a global perspective in nursing education. This article explores the use of a student/faculty exchange as an intervention to help facilitate an international partnership. Bandura's social learning theory provides the conceptual framework to model the exchange, a collaborative effort that offers faculty and students the opportunity to acquire an international view of health care by comparing and sharing nursing data across populations, settings, and geographic areas. Strategies for developing a successful exchange program, obstacles involved in the process, and evaluation methods are addressed.