Abstract
Background: The United States has the largest, most diverse immigrant population. Nurses will care for immigrant clients in all areas of nursing practice.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine nursing students' self-efficacy in working with immigrant clients following a service-learning experience.
Methods: A pre-/posttest descriptive study was used to measure students' self-efficacy in cultural aspects of screening, providing health education, and assisting with health care access prior to and after a voluntary service-learning experience at a resettlement agency.
Results: Statistical significance was found in overall scale score and in all 19 individual items except 2 related to working with (P = .21) and communicating with (P = .49) the health care team. Overall, pretest and posttest results revealed that students' self-efficacy working with immigrant clients was improved.
Conclusion: Collaborating with an immigrant resettlement program to provide a structured immigrant health learning experience for prelicensure nursing students can improve self-efficacy in working with immigrant clients.