Intercultural Communication Skills (3 cr)

Learning outcomes

The student is able to:
- communicate professional in a multicultural nursing environment
- identify personal developmental needs in communication skills and develop realistic strategies for improvement
- communicate empathetically with oneself, colleagues and patients

Materials

All material is provided in Canvas

Teaching methods

A Canvas learning environment is used to support the implementation, but it is important to take part in teaching and guidance on campus according to schedule. You will receive individual feedback for assignments from the teacher.

This course has a combination of contact lessons and individual work. It includes:
• Oral and intercultural communication skills needed for the healthcare setting
• Reflective written skills
• Intercultural and multicultural considerations when providing healthcare
• A needs-centred empathetic approach for the healthcare field

Exam schedules

According to the degree regulations (section 18) “students must be present in the first contact session or notify their teacher in charge if they cannot attend. If they fail to notify the teacher of their absence in the first contact session, their enrollment will be rejected. Another student in the queue may be enrolled in the study unit in the place of the absent student.” (Laurea degree regulations) I

This is a communications course that has active participatory exercises in the classroom, therefore compulsory attendance is expected (80%). In practice, this means 1-2 lessons can be missed. If there are multiple absences, a medical certificate needs to be provided. If the attendance criterion is not met, then the course will need be repeated.

The final date for the return of the reflective diary is 23.4.2023 If this deadline is not met, the teacher will provide a new deadline; if this additional deadline is not met then the course is failed and will need to be taken again. No feedback is provided for late submissions i.e. submissions that did not meet the initial deadline.
The deadlines are : 7.5.2023 and 28.5.2023

International connections

Internationality in the study unit is fully integrated as this is an internationally diverse group that will have facilitated intercultural exercises during contact lessons.

Completion alternatives

All students are entitled to demonstrate their competence. The recognition and accreditation of prior competence is initiated by the students themselves. The competence is recognised and accredited by the teacher responsible for the studies or another person designated to the position. The assessment is carried out according to the same assessment criteria and, as a rule, same grading scale as that adopted for the corresponding study unit or module. The student is entitled to apply for accreditation of prior competence regardless of where, how and when the competence has been acquired. The student is responsible for demonstrating and verifying their competence and for providing sufficient information.

Student workload

For a 3 Credit course you should be doing 81 hours of work. For this course it includes:

Contact lessons: 24 hours
Reflective learning diary and study material: 57 hours

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

A pass is achieved if the student's reflective learning diary shows
- Provides engagement with the topics and all the compulsory reading, discusses relevance; highlights possible questions
- Shows a connection between the topics and own skills, professional experience, or discipline knowledge.
- Highlights factors underlying the topics; explains and shows why they are important to an understanding of the topics overall
- Reframes future practice or professional understanding in the context of the studied material; expresses how this information can be utilised in the future

In addition, the attendance criterion and deadlines need to be met to obtain a pass.

Content scheduling

The course contains intercultural aspects required to provide nursing care in a multicultural setting. In addition, Nonviolent Communication or Constructive Communication is taught to provide a needs-based empathetic approach for both encountering patients and for self-empathy. This includes reflection on one's own emotional triggers and how to work with them.

Evaluation scale

H-5

Further information

The study unit corresponds to the requirements of Bachelor's level education. Laurea's degree regulations are applied for the requirements of fulfilling this course


The quality of the study unit implementation has been assessed and the self-evaluation report is available in the course's Canvas platform.