DUAL NURSING ROLE IN MEDICAL TOURISM: A REVIEW OF BARRIERS AND IMPROVEMENT

Abstract Medical tourism has expanded rapidly over the past two decades and focuses on providing care internationally which creates several advantages and challenges for healthcare systems. This review examines the dual nursing role in medical tourism, highlights the barriers and strategies to improve medical and nursing tourism, and explores the importance of nursing competencies essential for medical tourism. The researcher focused on articles published between 2018 and 2025 using databases such as PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, and Google Scholar. Findings indicated that nurses have a crucial role as care givers, educators, cultural mediators, and patient advocates within medical tourism. However, they are confronted with significant barriers including lack of training in this area, insufficient knowledge about cultural issues as well linguistic barriers, ethical and legal complexities. Strengthening nursing education, policy development, international collaboration, and organizational support are essential for improving nursing practice in medical tourism. This review underscores the importance of competencies required for nurses working in collaboration with the team involved and address challenges and improvement into journey of medical tourism.