Center for Brain, Mind and Education, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing 312000, China.
School of Teacher Education, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing 312000, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jul 2;18(13):7102. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18137102.
Universities are providing short-term overseas study programs for healthcare students to increase their cultural competence (i.e., capacity to work effectively in cross-cultural situations). However, there is limited empirical research evaluating the effects of these programs using well-controlled research designs. In the present research study, undergraduate healthcare students in an Australian university were selected as participants. Group 1 ( = 32) participated in a short-term overseas study program in Asia (i.e., China, Vietnam, Singapore, and Taiwan), whereas Group 2 ( = 46) stayed in Australia to continue their university education as usual. All participants completed a self-developed demographic questionnaire, Cultural Intelligence Scale, and Multicultural Personality Questionnaire. Cultural competence was surveyed pre- and post-short-term overseas programs. After controlling for prior overseas experiences and the open-mindedness trait, an ANCOVA indicated that Group 1 had a significantly higher scores than Group 2 in cultural knowledge ( < 0.05), but not in cultural awareness, attitude, or skills. It is suggested that short-term overseas study programs may increase healthcare students' cultural knowledge, a component of competence, and that more needs to be accomplished to improve other areas of cultural competence.
高校为医疗专业学生提供短期海外学习项目，以提高其文化能力（即在跨文化情境中有效工作的能力）。然而，使用经过良好控制的研究设计来评估这些项目效果的实证研究有限。在本研究中，澳大利亚一所大学的本科医疗专业学生被选为参与者。第 1 组（n=32）参加了亚洲的短期海外学习项目（即中国、越南、新加坡和中国台湾），而第 2 组（n=46）留在澳大利亚继续正常的大学教育。所有参与者都完成了一份自行设计的人口统计问卷、文化智能量表和多元文化人格问卷。在短期海外项目之前和之后对文化能力进行了调查。在控制了先前的海外经历和开放性特质后，ANCOVA 表明第 1 组在文化知识方面的得分显著高于第 2 组（<0.05），但在文化意识、态度或技能方面没有显著差异。这表明短期海外学习项目可能会提高医疗专业学生的文化知识，这是能力的一个组成部分，而要提高文化能力的其他方面还需要做更多的工作。
