Increasing international communication through health promotion education and research

Background and Issues: A school of nursing in a large city in Northeast China invited a United States school of nursing faculty member to teach a health promotion and disease prevention course to Chinese nursing students. University objective was to increase the number of courses taught in English. Description: The primary goal was to teach a graduate and undergraduate course on health promotion and disease prevention (HPDP) to nursing students. Content in both included traditional HPDP, behavioral theories, environmental health, prevention interventions, complementary therapies, and comparisons of US and China risk factors and risk behaviors. Lessons Learned: Strengths of the experience were students' eagerness to learn, their sound scientific education, and strong support from the School of Nursing and a Chinese faculty mentor. Obstacles were students' difficulty in comprehending spoken English and English scientific words and American versus Chinese culture of learning. The experience was positive for students who were exposed to health promotion which is not a prominent theme in Chinese nursing education or practice. Both faculty (US and Chinese) learned at least as much, if not more, from the close contact and teaching process about healthcare, culture and history in each other's country. Recommendations: Specific strategies will be identified that assisted Chinese students in understanding and adapting to US teaching methods. However, the experience surpassed the basic objective suggesting similar opportunities may have the potential to increase understanding of health promotion and disease prevention as well as facilitate communication in nursing faculty and students around the globe.