Investigating internationally educated Taiwanese nurses' training and communication experiences in the United States.

BACKGROUND

The study objective was to construct an understanding of how educational training affected the cross-cultural communication experiences of five internationally educated Taiwanese nurses in the United States.

METHOD

Data collection included focus group interviews, individual interviews, and background information surveys. A combination of narrative and thematic analysis was used to analyze data.

RESULTS

Findings showed that the five participants believed their education and training did not prepare them well in U.S. health care communication. The training content lacked essential language needs and cultural knowledge of patient backgrounds, hospital subcultures, hospital policies, and nursing routines. In addition, clinical shadowing was limited in improving international nurses' English communication ability and building cultural competence.

CONCLUSION

Internationally educated nurses require specialized language and nursing assessment and comprehensive on-the-job training to work in U.S. clinical settings. This study benefited the VisaScreen and U.S. hospitals toward filling the training gaps of language and culture for international nurses. It also contributed to the understanding of both Teaching English for Speakers of Other Language researchers and nurse educators about the complexity of cross-cultural clinical communication.