Nurse Education Today · Aug 22, 2026

Preparing nursing students for multilingual caregiving contexts: A quasi-experimental evaluation of a problem-based English for nursing purposes intervention

By Lee YC, Chang CH, Wang YR et al.

BACKGROUND: Nursing education increasingly requires graduates to assume instructional roles in multicultural care environments. In long-term and acute care settings, nurses frequently supervise and educate foreign caregivers, yet formal preparation for multilingual instructional practice remains limited. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to design and evaluate a Problem Based Learning intervention integrating English for Nursing Purposes (PBL-based ENP) to prepare nursing students for instructional roles involving foreign caregivers. Specifically, it examined the intervention's effectiveness in enhancing long-term care knowledge and professional English, assessed students' course satisfaction and learning perceptions, and evaluated instructional and communication competence through a Scenario-Based Instructional Performance Assessment. DESIGN: Mixed-methods quasi-experimental study with pre- and post-test measures. PARTICIPANTS: Fifty-one undergraduate nursing students were recruited using convenience sampling strategy. SETTING: A university of science and technology in Taiwan. METHODS: Students participated in a PBL-based ENP course delivered in a simulation based instructional environment. Outcomes included ENP Knowledge Test, Long-Term Care Knowledge Test, Course Satisfaction Questionnaire, and Scenario-Based Instructional Performance Assessment. Repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance (R-M MANOVA), descriptive statistics, and exploratory factor analysis were conducted. Qualitative responses were analyzed using content analysis. RESULTS: Significant improvements were observed in overall ENP and long-term care knowledge (p < .05), with large effect sizes across several competency domains. Students reported moderate-to-high levels of course satisfaction and positive learning perceptions, particularly regarding instructional design and engagement. SBIPA outcomes demonstrated satisfactory instructional and communication competence (M = 85.06), indicating readiness for multilingual caregiving contexts. CONCLUSIONS: Integrating PBL with ENP offers a structured approach to preparing nursing students for multilingual instructional roles and supports embedding language integrated training within undergraduate curricula to strengthen professional readiness.

doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2026.107361PubMed 42648241Interventions