A Language-Focused Needs Analysis for ESL-Speaking Nursing Students.pdfVIP

A Language-Focused Needs Analysis for ESL-SpeakingNulsing Students in Class and Clinic Richard Cameron The Uniuersilyof Illinois at Chicago ABSTRACT Because clinical experience is essentialfor nursing education, even students with modest-to-lowproficiency in English as a second language @L) receive training and provide care in clinics. Yet modest-to-low language proficiencycouldprove hazardous for the students or theirpatients. Therefore, these nursing students would benefit from special classes in EL. Such classes require prior needs analyses that precisely articulate academic and clinical lan- guage needs. These needs statements serve as suggestionsfor course content. Reported here are the results o fan extensive needs analysisfor ESL-speaking graduate nursing students. The approach to needs definition derivesfrom Stufflebeamet al. (1985). The analysisfocuses on skills requiredfor school, clinicalpractice, and interaction with a multicultural, socially strati- fied patient population. Resulting needs statements are organized in terms of (1) Speech Pro- duction Accuracy, (2)Academic Performance, (3) ClinicalPerformance, (4) Dialect (Culturag Variation,and (5) lnferencing Skills. ~~~ ~ IntroducEion wisdom of placing non-nativespeaking (NNS) Graduatelevel training of nursing students typ nurses with modest levels of linguistic c o m p e ically consists of academic course work fol- tence in clinical contexts. Yet, given the need lowed by on-site practice in those clinical for clinical experience, this is precisely what settings most relevant