College of Nursing instructor Alia Lagace, published a study this summer in the Teaching and Learning in Nursing Journal.
An open access resource, the paper is on the experiences of nursing students in Canada who identify as English as an additional language (EAL). Lagace found that EAL nursing students struggle significantly more than their non-EAL peers in nursing school.
“In my experience as a nursing instructor, EAL students were having a harder time often, and there weren’t supports that we could access realistically. There are supports for language at the university, but not nursing-specific and not within the kind of time constraints of our program. Obviously, it’s a complex issue,” she said.
“I found that it’s a shared experience across Canada, and other countries, that nursing students who speak English as an additional language tend to struggle, fail or drop out at higher rates.”
She also looked at recent EAL nursing students who successfully graduated and were working in the field to see how the gap could be bridged.
“I wanted to get a sense of what they think could be helpful, as current practitioners looking back. What would they have liked to see in their program to help support themselves and maybe their less-outspoken peers who weren’t successful?”
The study was conducted in 2022, while Lagace was in the master of nursing program at Athabasca University.
Next, she will be working with Dr. Nicole Harder and several of her instructor colleagues to study what supports could benefit EAL students at the College of Nursing.