Cultural competence among nursing students and faculty

Summary care consumers are entitled to culturally competent care. Therefore, nursing curricula need to include cultural content and student nurses and faculty members need to be culturally competent. The purpose of the study was to describe cultural competence of students and faculty at a college of nursing and to discuss the implications for nursing curricula related to cultural competence. Campinha-Bacote’s model (Campinha-Bacote, J., 1994. Cultural competence in psychiatric mental health nursing. Nursing Clinics of North America 29 (1), 1–8.) of culturally competent care provided the theoretical framework. The Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence (IAPCC) (Campinha-Bacote, J., 1998. The Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services: A Culturally Competent Model of Care. Transcultural C.A.R.E. Associates, Cincinnati, OH. Available from: <www.transculturalcare.net>.) was used to measure levels of self-reported cultural competence. A convenience sample of 88 first year, 121 fourth year baccalaureate students and 51 faculty members at a college of nursing was studied. Analysis of variance revealed a statistically significant difference (F = 43.915, df = 259, p < .0001) between the three groups. A positive correlation was found between IAPCC scores and several demographic variables. Findings suggest that cultural competence can be increased by including structured cultural content in nursing curricula.