Cultivating Intercultural Sensitivity in Undergraduate Nursing Freshmen: A Qualitative Study

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_11How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Intercultural sensitivity; Nursing freshmen; Qualitative research; Nursing education

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to explore the cognitive development characteristics and training needs of intercultural sensitivity among undergraduate nursing freshmen. Methods: A qualitative research approach was adopted. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a cohort of undergraduate nursing freshmen from a medical university in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. The collected data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The analysis revealed that students’ cognitive development of intercultural sensitivity progressed through three distinct stages: unfamiliarity, practical relevance, and systemic thinking. Experiential teaching methods significantly enhanced their ability to cope with cultural differences. Challenges related to language proficiency and cultural adaptation were prominent during practical sessions. Students expressed a strong need for reinforced language training, expanded cultural knowledge, and the integration of innovative approaches into nursing practice courses. Conclusion: The findings indicate that intercultural sensitivity can be effectively cultivated through systematic training following a “theory–experience–practice” model. This study recommends refining the current nursing education framework to strengthen multicultural competence among future nurses.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Jun Li
AU  - Yuxuan Zhu
AU  - Bo Wu
AU  - Zimo Yu
AU  - Qiuheng Huang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/26
TI  - Cultivating Intercultural Sensitivity in Undergraduate Nursing Freshmen: A Qualitative Study
BT  - Proceeding of 2025 8th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 105
EP  - 114
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_11
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_11
ID  - Li2026
ER  -