Nursing Students' Self-Efficacy in Immigrant Health.

Abstract

The United States has the largest, most diverse immigrant population. Nurses will care for immigrant clients in all areas of nursing practice. The purpose of this study was to determine nursing students' self-efficacy in working with immigrant clients following a service-learning experience. A pre-/posttest descriptive study was used to measure students' self-efficacy in cultural aspects of screening, providing health education, and assisting with health care access prior to and after a voluntary service-learning experience at a resettlement agency. Statistical significance was found in overall scale score and in all 19 individual items except 2 related to working with (P = .21) and communicating with (P = .49) the health care team. Overall, pretest and posttest results revealed that students' self-efficacy working with immigrant clients was improved. Collaborating with an immigrant resettlement program to provide a structured immigrant health learning experience for prelicensure nursing students can improve self-efficacy in working with immigrant clients.