The Effect of Nursing Students’ Perspectives Toward Foreign Nationals on Post-operative Patient Care

Introduction: This study aimed to determine the effect of nursing students’ perspectives toward foreign nationals on the quality of post-operative patient care.
Methods: Data were collected between May 02, 2023 and January 30, 2024, from nursing students enrolled in the departments of two foundation universities. A 30-item questionnaire developed by the researcher based on the literature was used to gather data through face-to-face interviews.
Results: The study was completed with 249 participants. Among the participants, 60.6% did not prefer to include foreign national patients when preparing care plans, primarily due to limited foreign language proficiency (54.2%). Furthermore, 70.7% reported difficulties in providing post-operative care because of inadequate foreign language skills, while 53% experienced challenges related to cultural differences. Overall, 62.7% of students who held negative perceptions of foreign nationals had difficulty in providing post-operative care.
Discussion and Conclusion: The growing number of foreign nationals has contributed to negative perceptions among nursing students. Language barriers and cultural differences were the main factors impeding effective post-operative care. It is recommended that nursing curricula emphasize transcultural nursing and that further research be conducted to enhance students’ cultural competence and attitudes toward diversity.

Keywords: Migrants; Nursing care; Nursing students; Post-operative care