Nursing Education, Cultural Differences, and Political Conflicts: Israeli First-Person Action Research.

PURPOSE: The aim of this article was to focus on interventions that were part of an attempt to engage, in nursing education, with the challenges of working in a society afflicted with violent political tensions.

DESIGN: This article is an initial reflective report on two interventions (with students and with the nursing faculty) that were part of ongoing action research at a nursing school in Israel.

METHODOLOGY: The methodology used for this article is first-person action research based on the author's reflective accounts.

FINDINGS: Three themes in relation to the intervention with students are (a) acknowledging different identities; (b) making conflict discussable; and (c) the dynamics of silencing and self-censorship. Four vignettes that were at the center of the faculty's workshop are presented, as are the main contributions and shortcomings of the workshop. The main key to success for both interventions was that they were designed to answer specific needs and concerns of the participants.

CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for a wider effort to find ways to better address deep political, ethnic, social, religious, and racial conflicts as an integral part of nursing education. Interventions need to be tailor made for nursing and for the context.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Preparing future nurses to care in a context of complex political realities is essential for effective caregiving in societies fraught with conflict. Sharing attempts to implement interventions with students and faculty is a prerequisite for a wider global effort of addressing conflict in nursing education.