Effects of a global health nursing program on Vietnamese and South Korean students

Abstract

This study evaluated the improvement of global health nursing knowledge and attitude of participants in a program developed using a students’ needs assessment about global health nursing competency that was obtained in a previous study. The program comprised a lecture, group work, and field activities based on six global health nursing competence modules over a one-week period. Sixty individuals participated: thirty from South Korea and thirty from Vietnam. A pre-post survey was undertaken to measure knowledge change, and thematic content analysis was used to further understand attitude change. The overall score increased from 21.02 ± 3.36 before the program to 28.10 ± 6.56 after the program, showing a statistically significant difference ( p < .05). The change in the perception of knowledge on the healthcare system was high (from 1.53 ± 0.63 to 3.37 ± 4.23; p < .001), however a difference in perception of knowledge of the functions of the United Nations and World Health Organization was not significant after the program for Vietnam students ( p < .293). Ten sub-themes of thematic content were derived and regrouped into five themes, resulting in three domains: global health competence, global leadership competence, and cultural competence. The global health nursing program grew students’ knowledge and attitudes. Further studies on the long-term program effects are needed to generalize the global health nursing program.