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Experiences of undergraduate A frican health sciences students: A hermeneutic inquiry
Author(s) -
Inyama Davis,
Williams Allison,
McCauley Kay
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
nursing and health sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.563
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1442-2018
pISSN - 1441-0745
DOI - 10.1111/nhs.12153
Subject(s) - hermeneutics , meaning (existential) , white (mutation) , medical education , pedagogy , psychology , sociology , medicine , epistemology , philosophy , biochemistry , chemistry , psychotherapist , gene
While efforts have been made to understand the experiences of A frican students in predominantly white environments, the experiences of A frican students in clinical placement areas have rarely been explored. This paper is a report on a study designed to address the gap in educational research on the experiences of A frican health sciences students in clinical placements in predominantly white environments. Interviews adopting an open approach to conversations were conducted with nine A frican students from three health disciplines at one metropolitan university in A ustralia between 2012 and 2013. Interview transcripts were analyzed using philosophical hermeneutics, where shared meanings were arrived at by employing key G adamerian hermeneutic components. Findings revealed a number of factors that had a direct effect on the meaning students derived from their clinical placement experiences. These, as revealed in the interlinked domains of body, space, relationships, and time included difference, acceptance, resilience, and cultural sensitivity. Insights from this study may lead to the adoption of strategies designed to improve the experiences of A frican students studying health sciences in predominantly white environments.