Using Auto-Ethnography to Share Nursing Students' Experiences With Globally Networked Learning to Learn About Providing Affirming Care to Individuals With Diverse Sexual Orientations, Gender Identities, Expressions, and Sex Characteristics

Introduction

Three Canadian nursing students who participated in a virtual cultural exchange with a class in Hong Kong using Globally Networked Learning (GNL) sought to explore the perceived benefits of GNL and share their lived experiences. The students designed a qualitative study to further reflect on the use of GNL to complete an assignment about learning to provide safe and affirming care to individuals with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, expressions, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC). 

Goals and Methods

To better understand and share the students' experiences completing the GNL assignment, we utilized an auto-ethnographic research design centered around self-reflection and group sharing. To facilitate deep reflection and investigation into the students' experiences, we held focus group-style meetings with probing questions to collect the data. We used Braun and Clarke’s reflexive thematic analysis as our analytical tool of choice, as it requires deep immersion in the collected data while encouraging subjectivity in analysis, which allowed the most grounded representation of the students' lived experiences. The students began by breaking down the data into numerous ‘codes’ to identify significant ideas and quotations, followed by collectively working to identify overarching themes and subthemes.

Results

Preliminary themes identified by the students in their analysis reflect the overwhelmingly positive and multifaceted effect GNL had on the students' learning experiences, where the students felt they not only met but exceeded expected learning outcomes. Upon reflecting on their experiences, the  students were also able to identify areas for improvement in the source material of the assignment, as well as areas for advocacy in the future, which is an important feature of nursing practice. 

Conclusions

An auto-ethnographic approach with reflexive thematic analysis allowed for rigorous in-depth analysis of common themes across the three students' experiences while maintaining an authentic representation of the students' perspectives.