The Use of Talking Circles to Describe a Native American Transcultural Caring Immersion Experience

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Abstract
Background: The Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at the Florida Atlantic University is grounded in the Nursing as Caring theory. A transcultural caring immersion experience for nursing students is provided within the tribal community of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokees. Aims: The purpose of this study was to ascertain descriptions of nursing students’ transcultural immersion experience. Design: A qualitative descriptive approach was used via the Talking Circle method. The consensual qualitative research analytical approach was used to categorize participant responses. Findings: Six themes emerged that are consistent with the Nursing as Caring theoretical key concepts: (1) persons are caring as diverse human beings, (2) persons care from a unique cultural perspective moment to moment, (3) persons are whole and complete in the moment when engaging with diverse others, (4) personhood is a process of living with meaningful purpose by diverse persons, (5) personhood evolves while caring for diverse others in nurturing relationships, and (6) connecting nursing as both a profession and a discipline occurs among unique and diverse persons. Conclusions: The findings from this study reveal the value of providing a transcultural caring immersion experience to students from a Nursing as Caring theoretical perspective.

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