Introduction: International exchange during higher education in health science offers significant benefits and gives opportunities for enhanced cultural awareness and professional development. Participation in exchange programs is frequently shaped by a range of enablers and barriers. To effectively support students and create strategies that encourage mobility, it is crucial to understand their characteristics, preferences, and awareness of exchange opportunities.
Objectives: The objective was to describe students' characteristics, preferences, and knowledge about exchange opportunities. It also aimed to identify enablers and barriers to exchange, and to explore the associations between students' characteristics and their intentions to participate in exchange programs.
Methods: This study was designed as a cross-sectional survey among students enrolled in four 3-year professional health bachelor’s programs in Norway (N=192), that is occupational therapy, nursing, paramedic and social nurse educational programs. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis was performed on quantitative data, and content analysis was performed to the qualitative data.
Results: The results indicate that post-pandemic, both personal factors like social relationships and socioeconomic factors like finances are associated with students' decisions to participate in exchange programs.Those intending to participate were more informed about the process and had a greater desire to engage in both theoretical and clinical courses during the exchange.
Conclusion and Significance to the Occupational Therapy Profession: This study offers a detailed understanding of students' characteristics, preferences, and the barriers related to their intention to engage in international exchange opportunities within health science programs. This knowledge is important in order for university to facilitate education of occupational therapy students to become global citizens that will be able to address issues of global health, diversity, innovation, and occupational justice.