A team of King’s educators from the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care have recently been awarded the 2021 Student Nursing Times Award for Teaching Innovation of the Year. This project involved creating and implementing a four-week Virtual International Elective (VIE) entitled “Around the World in Six WHO Regions”.

The project was devised and led by Jacqui Boulton, a Lecturer in Adult Nursing and Faculty Lead for student mobility, electives, and global health. Jacqui worked with a team of King's educators and colleagues at collaborating institutions from across the six World Health Organisation (WHO) regions, facilitating 52 BSc Nursing students to virtually travel to 19 countries.

The VIE aimed to mirror the outcomes of an in-person international elective by taking nursing students on a virtual tour around the world and exploring the challenges and triumphs of nursing within these differing global contexts. It involved hundreds of interactions between participants across all six WHO regions and resulted in outstanding evaluations from participants, additional benefits for widening participation and phenomenal feedback across the college.

In addition, the programme aimed to further embed King’s Strategic Vision 2029 and specifically to develop students’ global mindset and cultural competency by creating a sense of ‘being there’. In an increasingly multi-cultural society these qualities are essential to promoting excellence in nursing and a cornerstone of King’s approach to internationalisation.

The Student Nursing Times Awards panel was looking for novel approaches to nursing education that are workable, successful, and potentially sustainable. Commenting upon why this innovation stood out from the other ten worthy shortlistings, the judges said:
"This was an innovative and immersive experience offered to student nurses, espousing core values of inclusivity, equality and diversity. Students were encouraged to take a scholarly approach to develop their understanding of nursing as a global community. This was developed in response to the global pandemic to facilitate students’ elective experiences. Its transcultural teaching approaches were exciting and engaging. The winner has clearly enriched the students’ experience and the innovation has great potential to influence nursing education in the future."

While undertaking the programme, it was important that students were well prepared before a professional visit to a specific country, as it would be for an actual elective. To achieve this, students completed ‘know before you go’ activities in a specially created travel log (equivalent to the practice learning document they use for their placements). For each country they visited, students reviewed and understood the specific health risks, carrying out research on basic demographics and health challenges.

Activities in different countries included synchronous (live) discussions with students and staff in international nursing faculties, presentations and Q&A’s from nurses who had responded to specific challenges ‘in the field’ (including King’s alumni) and showcasing of our Faculty’s many international research collaborations and other partnerships. There were also small group book and film clubs which helped to create that sense of ‘being there’. Students used Padlet – an online educational tool that allows people to share information in a single place online – to discuss and reflect in a collaborative way.

If you would like to know more, Jacqui presented the initiative earlier this year at the King’s Teaching & Learning Conference, which is available as a King’s Education (KED) Talk.