Self-perceived cultural competence: a cross-sectional study about nurses' awareness and behavior

Abstract

Background: Cultural competence is a valuable and intangible heritage of knowledge, relationships and identity. Cultural competence is fundamental in nursing: sharing the objectives of all patients - not only foreigners - promotes patient's participation in healthcare and supports nurses' professional development, enhancing the intellectual capital that guides quality care. The aim of this study is to evaluate nurses' self-perceived cultural competence.

Study design: This is a cross-sectional study.

Methods: A self-administered cultural-competence questionnaire was used. Nurses working in hospitals and territorial healthcare settings in Rome, Italy, were involved in this study, from March 2017 to February 2018.

Results: This study involved 192 nurses. The mean age was 46.2 ± 7.9. Most of the nurses (77.6%) were women. The nurses' mean work experience was 21.4 ± 8.8 years; 65.1% of them had never attended any type of course concerning multiculturalism. The mean score of the nurses' cultural competence was 4.19 ± 0.57 (range = 2.75-5.71). In all, 41.7% of the nurses did not consider themselves neither competent nor incompetent.

Conclusion: The results show that nurses have an acceptable level of cultural competence, slightly higher in the territorial context.

Keywords: Perception; cultural competence; healthcare; nursing.