Globally Engaged Nursing Education with Local Immigrant Populations

Abstract

This case study describes how a community health nursing practicum course was redesigned to increase undergraduate students' knowledge of and interactions with local immigrant populations. The goal of this tailored practicum is to develop students' sense of global engagement while remaining in the local community. The GENE framework is applied to course planning, delivery, and evaluation of the experience. The key components of the GENE framework are organizational mission/course goals, global health core content, program characteristics, learner characteristics, reflection, and transformational learning. The practicum design, learning objectives, and community partnership development served to create a co-learning environment. Use of an experiential education philosophy allowed the practicum to evolve as students, faculty, agency staff, and community residents learned together over the practicum. Students developed a more complex understanding of health and social conditions of immigrant populations. They moved from a primarily mono- to an increasingly multicultural orientation. The GENE model was useful in offering a globally focused learning experience within a local community.