Lived Experience of US Faculty Teaching Online Korean Nursing Students

Background: As global barriers are shrinking, the world has seen an increase in the immigration of foreign nurses to the U.S., as they seek expanded professional opportunities and an improved lifestyle for themselves and their families. Campbell (2009) noted that with the increasing diversity of the U.S. population, there is a corresponding need to employ a diverse nursing workforce to complement the population.

Purpose: This study explores the lived experience of U.S. faculty teaching Korean nursing students in an online RN-BSN program. Search of the literature revealed a paucity of evidence related to the faculty experience in teaching foreign nursing students in an online environment. A few studies focused on educating foreign students on a U.S. campus, but none focused on online nursing students (Ahn, Kim, Cho, Kim, Kang, Nam, & Sohn, 2015). Some literature identified perceptions of faculty teaching Chinese, Japanese, and Korean students in traditional U.S. classroom settings in relation to cultural and language barriers (Roy, 2013; Jung, Nam, & Han, 2015; Otto, 2016). Campbell (2009) provided the only relevant discussion, with a description of the experience of faculty teaching South Korean nursing students on one U.S. campus. Campbell also cited an increase in development of nursing courses structured for specific cultural cohorts of students, designed to enculturate nurses to role expectations of a nurse in the U.S.

The U.S. university developed a registered nurse education model that includes offering an online RN-BSN completion program for South Korean registered nurses. In this model, U.S. faculty travel to Seoul, South Korea during the first course of the RN-BSN program, offering a two-day, face-to-face orientation to the university, the program, and the online learning management system. The remainder of the BSN coursework is offered fully online. From 2015 to 2017, over 100 nurses have participated in this program, with over 30 faculty involved in their education.

In development and execution of the program, some barriers were anticipated, while others surfaced during program implementation. Online instruction in general has not been widely implemented in Korea, and there is a sense of unease and discomfort with this delivery method, much as occurred in the U.S. when distance learning was first initiated. Limited research is available on the use of the Internet in Korean nursing programs, though the use of blended learning and flipped classrooms has been identified (Choi, Kim, Bank, Park, Lee, & Kim, 2015; Park, 2017).

Methods: This qualitative, phenomenological study was designed to examine the lived experiences of the faculty teaching in this program. A survey instrument, developed by the researchers, includes open-ended questions about faculty perceptions in teaching online Korean nursing students. The use of follow-up interviews with select participants supports validity and data checking.

Results: Data collection and analysis continue, but early results have indicated an overwhelmingly positive response to the experience, with one faculty member stating, “This has been my best experience at the university!”

Conclusions: Findings of this study have multinational implications to other populations of nurses who are closing the global divide. This educational model may be replicated and strengthened based on the research findings of this study.