Effects of a Cultural Competence Educational Program for Nursing Students / 간호행정학회지

PURPOSE: With the increase of foreigners using Korea health facilities, it is important for nurses to be culturally competent. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a cultural competence educational program on the cultural competence of nursing students. METHODS: A quasi-experimental study with a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used. For the experimental group there were 42 participants from one school and for the control group, 40 from another school. The experimental group participated in the 14 week multicultural nursing education program while the control group participated later after the experiment was finished. Data were collected using self-report structured questionnaires prior to the intervention and right after the intervention, and were analyzed using descriptive statistics, χ² test, and independent t-test with SPSS 18.0 program. RESULTS: The experimental group reported significant positive changes for cultural knowledge (t=3.99, p<.001), cultural awareness (t=3.92, p<.001), cultural acceptance (t=2.25, p=.027), and cultural competence behaviors (t=4.30, p<.001) compared to the control group. CONCLUSION: The results of the study indicate that the cultural competence educational program developed by the researchers is effective in raising the level of cultural knowledge, cultural awareness, cultural acceptance, and cultural competence behaviors of nursing students.

Development of a Cultural Competence Scale for Nursing Students

PURPOSE: This methodological study was conducted to develop and test a cultural competence scale for nursing students. METHODS: Based on the five constructs of cultural competency identified in the conceptual analysis of Suh, 76 items for the tool were derived initially. These items were reduced to 58 items after content validity tests (two times) by 6 multicultural experts. Data collected from 526 nursing students were utilized to test the validity and reliability of the preliminary tool. Item analysis, factor analysis, Pearson correlation coefficients, and Cronbach's alpha were used for the analysis. RESULTS: Twenty-seven items were selected for the final scale, and categorized into 5 factors explaining 62.1% of the total variance. Cronbach's alpha was .91 and the reliability of the subscales ranged from .76 to .91. Criterion validity between the developed tool and empathy (r=.26, p <.001) was significant. CONCLUSION: The results show that this scale can provide scientific and empirical data when evaluating the effectiveness of school curriculums or multicultural empowerment programs regarding cultural competence of nursing students.