Finnish as a language of communication in the clinical environment: perception of international nursing students

Abstract

Finland has an increasing number of multi-cultural and multi-lingual students as more universities of applied sciences are introducing nursing programs. Nevertheless, communication problem which include reading, writing and speaking Finnish lan-guage still remains the major issues in the clinical settings. This study examined the experiences of international nursing students during their clinical practices, the possible ways to assist their academic progression and improve their Finnish language skills as well as providing answers to these questions; 1) What are the experiences of international nursing students with limited Finnish language skills in clinical practice? 2) What effects do lack of Finnish language proficiency have on international nursing students’ learning? 3) What support can be given to in-ternational nursing students who have limited language proficiency? Qualitative method was adopted for this study. Open ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were used in data collection. Second, third and fourth year Bachelor of health science international nursing stu-dents from Arcada UAS participated in this study. Only fifteen out of sixty-four stu-dents who received the questionnaire distributed by hand and electronically partici-pated in the study. Three of the fifteen students preferred one-to-one interaction. The same questions on the questionnaire were used for the interviews. Imogene king’s 1981, communication theory was the theoretical framework for this study. Thematic systematic approach was adopted for data analysis. Four themes emerged from the results; (a) communication, (b) social isolation and rejection, (c) limited op-portunity for learning and (d) inadequate university and hospital support. The results generally depicted the challenges faced by international nursing students during their supervised clinical practices in the Finnish clinical settings. Finally, it is hoped that adequate collaborative support by the teachers at the universi-ty and the clinical instructors in the hospitals would help in improving the quality in learning and the language skills of these students.