Diversity in nursing education: Middle eastern students

Abstract

Background: Culturally diverse students face barriers to success in nursing school. One troublesome obstacle is the faculty-student relationship. This study explored Middle East-ern nursing students in Jordan and identified Eastern-West-ern cultural differences that may occur in the United States.

Method: Existential descriptive phenomenology and feminist theoretical framework were used to design, collect data, and analyze results for 24 final-semester students. Six themes were identified: dissatisfaction, time, negativity, gender, culture, and utopia. Findings indicate Middle Eastern students and families have a different view of nursing than U.S. faculty members.

Results: Strong influences of family, culture, and community directly relate this study’s conclusions to Middle Eastern stu-dents studying in the U.S. These findings may prevent faculty-student misunderstandings, diminished student academic performance, and loss of culturally diverse U.S. nurses. Conclu-sion: The faculty-student relationship benefits from an under-standing of the cultural challenges and experiences identified by Middle Eastern nursing students studying in the U.S.