The internationalisation agenda continues to be one of the key influences on the patterns of work of UK higher education institutions. In order to enhance cultural competencies for healthcare students, provisions are made by several UK universities for students to complete a clinical placement abroad, referred to as ‘international clinical placement’ (ICP) in this thesis. Previous studies on ICP have examined the experiences of students but research on the long-term influence of these experiences on students’ careers is still scant. The research reported here represents an initial attempt to capture accounts of these influences. This study was designed to gain a holistic understanding of the long-term influences of ICP on students’ careers drawing on the multiple perspectives of healthcare graduates and employers. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first study that has gained employers’ views as well as the views of graduates, when exploring the impact of ICP on employability. Qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with both graduates and healthcare employers. A thematic analysis of the data identified four key themes: practice culture, communication in clinical practice, approaches to employability and career management. The attitude of participants towards the value of ICP for developing cultural competencies was largely positive but it was difficult to determine the extent to which an isolated experience such as ICP influenced their employability. The findings from this study did not suggest that ICP experiences had any greater influence than UK placements in gaining employment. The discourse around standards and scope of clinical practices abroad was found to be the dominant feature in shaping students’ careers. Whilst appreciating the differences between the clinical practice in the UK and other countries in Europe, both the employers and graduates in this study held strongly to the ethnocentric views that the standard and scope of professional practice is limited in most European countries when compared to the UK. The outcomes of this research benefit multiple stake holders including students, academics, clinical educators, professional bodies, employers, and researchers.
Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/zpac-y939
Mysore, Sunitha Bhagavathi
Supervisors: Butt, Graham; Spiro, Jane; Samier, Eugenie
School of EducationFaculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Year: 2018
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