RESUMEN
PURPOSE: This study evaluated the effect of a teaching model to improve cultural competency (TMCC) for Korean undergraduate nursing students. METHODS: A nonequivalent control group pretest/posttest quasi-experimental study was conducted with a convenience sample of 168 undergraduate nursing students in South Korea. The experimental group of 121 seniors was taught a 13-week teaching model in order to improve cultural competence. A control group with 47 junior students underwent nursing major courses, but did not take this teaching model. Before and after the program, students' level of cultural competency was measured using the Questionnaire for Cultural Competence (QCC) consisting of three sub-scales: “awareness and desire,” “encounter,” and “nursing skill and knowledge.” RESULTS: After the experiment, the experimental group showed significantly higher improvement in the Questionnaire for Cultural Competence in the three sub-scales of “awareness and desire,” “encounter,” and “nursing skill and knowledge” than the control group (p= < .050). CONCLUSION: A teaching model to improve cultural competence was effective in improving Korean undergraduate nursing students' cultural competency. Further studies need to be repeated in order to identify the effectiveness of the teaching model to improve cultural competency with graduate or clinical nurses.