Nursing Student Engagement in Cultural Humility Through Global Health Service Learning: An Interpretive Phenomenological Approach

Abstract

Introduction: This study explored how global health service learning supported nursing student engagement in the process of cultural humility and how it shaped student understanding of themselves and their ability to develop supportive intercultural relationships. Methods: Written reflections were collected from eight second-year students while on a 9-day practicum in a low-resource Caribbean country. Six students participated in posttrip interviews. Thematic analysis was used to illuminate the students’ lived experience. Results: Four student themes emerged: (1) overcoming challenges, (2) opening our eyes, (3) seeing difference as a strength, and (4) learning with and from each other. While participants were inherently ethnocentric, the process of cultural humility curbed their sense of superiority and enabled the development of supportive intercultural relationships with their hosts. Discussion: This global health service learning was an effective strategy to enhance student nurses’ learning about themselves and intercultural relationships and to develop the attributes of cultural humility.