Experiences of registered nurses who supervise international nursing students in the clinical and classroom setting: An integrative literature review

Aims and objectives: To examine the literature reporting the experiences and perceptions of registered nurses who supervise international nursing students in the clinical and classroom setting. Background: Nursing education relies on clinical experts to supervise students during classroom and clinical education, and the quality of that supervision has a significant impact on student development and learning. Global migration and internationalisation of nursing education have led to increasing numbers of registered nurses supervising international nursing students. However, a paucity of relevant literature limits our understanding of these experiences. Design: An integrative literature review. Methods: Comprehensive database searches of CINAHL, Informit, PubMed, Journals at Ovid, Findit at flinders and Medline were undertaken. Screening of 179 articles resulted in 10 included for review. Appraisal and analysis using Whittemore and Knafl's (Journal of Advanced Nursing, 52, 2005, 546) five stage integrative review recommendations was undertaken. Results: This review highlighted some unique challenges for registered nurses supervising international nursing students. Identified issues were, a heightened sense of responsibility, additional pastoral care challenges, considerable time investments, communication challenges and cultural differences between teaching and learning styles. Conclusion: It is possible that these unique challenges could be minimised by implementing role preparation programmes specific to international nursing student supervision. Further research is needed to provide an in-depth exploration of current levels of preparation and support to make recommendations for future practice, education and policy development. Relevance to clinical practice: An awareness of the specific cultural learning needs of international nursing students is an important first step to the provision of culturally competent supervision for this cohort of students. There is an urgent need for education and role preparation for all registered nurses supervising international nursing students, along with adequate recognition of the additional time required to effectively supervise these students.