Great Suffering, Great Compassion: A Transcultural Opportunity for School Nurses Caring for Cambodian Refugee Children

The cultural ways of Cambodian refugee families, combined with the physical and psychological health problems inherent in their refugee experience, present opportunities for nurses to engage in transcultural nursing. The purpose of this descriptive study was to understand the nature and meaning of a school district cross-cultural team’s experiences of providing health care for children of Cambodian refugee families. Focus group interviews with school nurses and Cambodian liaisons were conducted utilizing S. M. Dobson’s conceptual framework of transcultural health visiting as a guiding theoretical perspective. Transcultural and intracultural reciprocity as experienced with Cambodian families are explored and described. Concrete suggestions for fostering transcultural reciprocity with Cambodian refugee families are provided.