The combined degree program in Nursing and International Studies provides Nursing students with a knowledge and understanding of another language and culture. Apart from its wider educational goals, there are two practical consequences of the program. The first is that it provides graduate nurses with specific skills in their chosen language and culture. The second, and possibly more important consequence, is that it makes nurses more aware of the need for intercultural sensitivities, not only through studying another language and culture, but also by living in another society for a period of time. It is offered jointly by the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health and the Institute for International Studies.
Students spend the fourth year of study at a university overseas.
All existing arrangements for both the Bachelor of Nursing and the Bachelor of Arts in International Studies apply equally to the combined degree program in Nursing and International Studies. Nursing is a continual interplay between theory and application, experience and understanding, and interpretation and reflection, leading to theory refinement and transformation resulting from reflection in and on experience. Underpinning the person's entry into the nursing relationship is an actual, perceived or potential imbalance of health care demands and resources associated with actual or potential imbalance of health care demands and resources associated with actual or potential alterations in functional health status and processes or patterns of functional health status. The person brings to the relationship a complex organisation of physical, emotional and spiritual elements in relation to health care needs and wellbeing. Within the relationship, the nurse contributes professional and personal knowledge, experiences and attributes which enable informed, capable and caring nursing practice.