ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The United States population is becoming increasingly diverse. Despite this trend, diversity in the nursing profession lags. In order to provide patient-centered care, students must learn the nuances of providing culturally competent care. There are many ways to assess the impact of culture on healthcare behaviors and norms, and can include, but are not limited to, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religious preference. Clinical experiences offer inconsistent opportunities for students to interact with potentially diverse patients. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this project was to develop a simulation that built upon curricular objectives and evidence-based guidelines for healthcare providers communicating across language barriers. FINDINGS: Regulations and evidence-based guidelines describe how to provide quality patient-centered care to diverse groups of patients. These guidelines can be adapted at the clinician and systems level to facilitate culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate services to patients. These guidelines were applied in an educational setting, and combined with best practices in simulation, to enhance undergraduate nursing students' experience in caring for diverse patients. CONCLUSION: The use of simulation can be optimized when based on evidence-based guidelines encountered in clinical care.
