A way of seeing study abroad: narratives from nurse education

This paper reports on the findings of a phenomenological study of nursing students studying abroad. The literature shows that study abroad has long been part of liberal educational approaches dating back to medieval times. Yet it is only recently that undergraduate nursing students have been allowed to study abroad as part of their formal programme. The research conducted was informed by the philosophical hermeneutic phenomenology of Martin Heidegger and was designed to answer the question: ‘How is study abroad manifest in the experience of nursing students?’ Data were collected through the use of unstructured diaries of 26 nursing students studying at two universities in the United Kingdom. Analysis uncovered six structures or ‘ways for study abroad to be’: leaving behind, escape, foreigner, learning, self-discovery and risk. The main focus of this paper is ‘leaving behind’; the selection of this structure reflects its general interest and predominance in data analysis. Interpretation of the structure suggests that study abroad might offer an opportunity to militate against the limiting effects of personal and professional socialization processes. Here, socialization is viewed as a state of becoming and study abroad for some nursing students is a facet of this state of becoming. Finally, it is argued that study abroad is deserving of much greater attention in nurse education and beyond. For example, the concepts of global communities and a global economy necessitate the need for employees in the future to have wider experiences and understanding of different cultures and understanding the experience of study abroad is one possible contribution to this. Thus, it is believed that this study makes a valuable contribution to teaching and learning discourses, specifically nurse education and also in wider educational arenas.