Background: Developing nursing capacity worldwide includes training nurses to a doctorate level. Due to a global shortage of PhD nursing programs, a large number of nurses are pursuing their doctorates abroad. International nurse students frequently face challenges brought on by prejudice, discrimination, and stigma during their time studying internationally because of sociocultural differences. To the best of the authors' knowledge, there is limited research on the experiences of international nurse students. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the experiences of international nursing students at Zhengzhou University.
Methods: This study employed a phenomenological approach among international nurse’s students at Zhengzhou University, China. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants. The sample size was determined by information saturation. A semi-structured interview guide was used. All data were recorded electronically during the interview. The conventional content analysis approach was employed to enable a deeper understanding and the formation of themes.
Results: In this study, ten international nursing students were interviewed. All the participants conveyed positive and negative feedback and their concerns, along with the challenges, prejudice, and discrimination that came with it. Two major themes were identified from the student data: situations outside the school (skin color, language, and sociocultural differences) and inside the school (expectations and reality of learning experiences, supervisory concerns, and lack of support from the school or university).
Conclusion: This study indicated that international nursing students experienced different challenges and concerns as an international nursing student. The university/school must create a culturally competent and good environment and create opportunities to visit clinical areas for international nursing students. To a greater extent, all students beginning their studies require some support as they transition to universities and acclimate to the new university context. Furthermore, the establishment of relationships between international and domestic students is crucial for the formation of future nurse–researcher communities of practice.
