Preparation for nursing student placements abroad and in Canada's northern communities: a secondary analysis

Service-learning experiences, or undergraduate nursing placements, are being pursued by students to gain a global perspective and broaden their cultural horizons in preparation for the increasingly diverse realities of the world. And yet, a paucity of literature exists in how to best prepare nursing students to practice from a position of cultural safety. The purpose of my study was to examine how structure and agency shaped nursing students’ preparation for placements abroad and in Canada’s Northern communities. A secondary analysis was employed to examine pre-existing qualitative data in the form of previously conducted interviews. Giddens’ Structuration theory was utilized to understand the (re)production of social systems based on the duality of structure and agency. Findings indicated that students’ perception and how they experienced their environment impacted their actions, thus, illustrating the need to improve predeparture training to be rooted in cultural safety. Implications for practice, education, and policy are explored.