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. 2018 Jan 8:17:1.
doi: 10.1186/s12912-017-0269-4. eCollection 2018.

Factors affecting the cultural competence of visiting nurses for rural multicultural family support in South Korea

Min Hyun Suk  1 , Won-Oak Oh  2 , YeoJin Im  3
Affiliations

Factors affecting the cultural competence of visiting nurses for rural multicultural family support in South Korea

Min Hyun Suk et al. BMC Nurs. .

Abstract

Background: With the recent growth of multicultural families in the Korean society, the importance of the role of qualified visiting nurses in the delivery of culturally sensitive health care has grown dramatically. As the primary health care provider for multicultural families enrolled in public community-based health care centers, the cultural competence of visiting nurses is an essential qualification for the provision of quality health care for multicultural families, especially in rural areas. Cultural competence of visiting nurses is based on their cultural awareness and empathetic attitude toward multicultural families. This study aimed to examine the levels of cultural competence, empowerment, and empathy in visiting nurses, and to verify the factors that affect the cultural competence of visiting nurses working with rural multicultural families in South Korea.

Methods: Employing a cross-sectional descriptive study design, data from 143 visiting nurses working in rural areas were obtained. Data collection took place between November 2011 and August 2012. The measurement tools included the modified Korean version of the Cultural Awareness Scale, the Text of Items Measuring Empowerment, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index to measure the level of empathy of visiting nurses. Analyses included descriptive statistics, a t-test, an ANOVA, a Pearson correlation coefficient analysis, and a multiple linear regression analysis.

Results: The cultural competence score of the visiting nurses was 3.07 on a 5-point Likert scale (SD = 0.30). The multiple regression analysis revealed that the cultural competence of visiting nurses was significantly influenced by experience of cultural education, empathy, and scores on the meaning subscale of the empowerment tool (R2 = 10.2%).

Conclusions: Institutional support to enhance visiting nurses' empowerment by assuring the significance of their job and specific strategies to enhance their empathy would be helpful to improve the cultural competence of visiting nurses. Additionally, regular systematic education on culturally sensitive care would be helpful to enable visiting nurses to provide culturally sensitive care for multicultural families.

Keywords: Community health; Cultural competence; Cultural diversity; Empathy; Empowerment.

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Conflict of interest statement

This study complies with national guidelines (National Law information Center of South Korea). The formal ethics approval for the human subject research project was not mandatory and required until the year of 2013, according to Bioethics and Safety Act in South Korea [Enforcement Date 02, Feb, 2013]. The local ethics committee ruled that no formal ethics approval for the study using the survey questionnaires for human subject research project was required.Not applicableThe authors declare that they have no competing interests.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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