How valuable is an international cultural visit?

It is acknowledged that, due to globalisation and increasing levels of migration, undergraduate nursing students require cultural competence skills to be able to deliver care to diverse populations (Sharifi et al, 2019). International exchanges and cultural visits have been identified as one of the ways cultural competence can be developed (Crawford et al, 2017; Gower et al, 2017). As a result, an element of my role as International Lead for nursing programmes involves facilitating cultural exchanges for students in Japan and the USA.

Research suggests that students do learn about cultural competence from international exchanges (Hilde et al, 2018; Choi and Kim, 2018). However, I am often asked: ‘What is the value of such visits to students and people they care for?’ I am currently undertaking research on the impact of international visits on the development of undergraduate healthcare students' cultural competence. These critical questions have encouraged me to consider the outcomes of cultural exchanges in relation to the person's personal and/or professional development, and whether these could justify international visits in view of the financial costs for both students and university staff.