Nursing, Study Abroad, and Globalization

Nursing and Study Abroad In a changing, globalized world, it is becoming increasingly important for nurses to develop a global nursing ethic and take into consideration a plethora of cultural factors. This global ethic is based on an in-depth knowledge of what it means to be human, regardless of ethnic, cultural, religious, political, economic, gender and age differences (Santa Clara University 2010). According to a book written by Tschudin and Davis called The Globalisation of Nursing, “The trend towards globalisation is creating challenges for nurses to provide holistic patient care, including having to deal with unfamiliar infectious diseases and the taboos of patients and their families often related to their religions and traditional values.” Because of globalization, it is becoming ever more important for nurses to offer a new level of scientific and humanistic care that takes a wide variety of differences into consideration and proposes the most effective and ethical form of care for people of different backgrounds. For nurses to fully understand other cultures and support an increasingly flat world, study abroad is a crucial step in a college education. Studying abroad is the act of a student pursuing educational opportunities in a foreign country (Brown University, 2010). This method of education offers many benefits that are very important for students in the 21st century. By engaging oneself in another culture, one can get to know that culture first hand and understand the perceptions, beliefs and values that make that culture unique, as well as providing the opportunity to learn or enhance language skills through immersion. Study abroad also provides an awareness of one’s place in that country as well as that country’s place in the world, which is of the utmost importance with the prevalence of globalization. The United States is currently undergoing a rapid demographic transformation. According to the US Census Bureau, while 81%

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