“This is the second year we have hosted students through this program,” Hoover explains. “They enjoyed a tour of our hospital’s various departments, but their favorite was a tour of our surgery department.”
This is the fourth year in a row that Japanese nursing students were able to participate in the program through SAU School of Nursing and English Department.
All students were in their second or third year of nursing school and spent approximately three weeks at SAU specifically to complete the cross cultural practicum and learn conversational English.
Each student was paired with a host family so they could see firsthand how Americans live, communicate, work, worship, eat, and play.
The students attended English as a Second Language (ESL) classes in the morning and nursing assessment classes in the evening. They became CPR certified and had the opportunity to interact with current SAU nursing students.
In order to experience the health care system in the United States, they toured Skyridge Hospital, Life Bridges, Bradley Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, and Signature Healthcare, all in Cleveland, Tenn.
They had an opportunity to visit Life Care Center and the Volunteer Fire Department in Collegedale. In addition to Gordon Hospital in Calhoun, the students also visited Kuraoka Clinic in Atlanta.
The students were able to relax and practice their English outside of the classroom when they visited popular tourist destinations in Tennessee.





