Intercultural education of Nurses and health professionals in Europe 2 (IENE2): training the trainers

This paper reports on one stage of a European Union (EU) funded project (IENE2) that aimed to contribute to the vocational education and training (VET) of nurses and other healthcare professionals in Europe through enhancing the capacity of teachers to promote intercultural dialogue and the development of students’ ability to provide culturally competent care. A previous project (IENE1) produced a model for the development of cultural competence for use in the participating institutions. The project reported in this paper describes the transfer of this innovation to a wider audience. A needs analysis of a sample of teachers identified their training needs in relation to integrating the model into their curricula to prepare their students to work in multicultural environments and/or other European countries. The opinions of health services employers and senior managers were also elicited. The results of this investigation informed the production of a Train the Trainer package for use in a series of workshops for teachers in participating organisations.