150

Learning Objective #1: identify culturally relevant nursing nterventions and strategies that will assist in reducing health care disparities of African American patients with mental illness.

Learning Objective #2: describe the nurse's perception of how and to what extent psychiatric mental health nursing care meets the patient's cultural needs.

---

Mental illness, which affects all ethnic, racial, and cultural groups, is a pervasive problem throughout the world.  In the United States, the prevalence of mental illness is approximately 21% of all Americans. A comprehensive report by the Surgeon General (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999), notes mental illness to disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities in the United States.  Therefore, providing culturally competent care for diverse patient populations is a critical challenge facing the nursing profession. Unfortunately, evidence-based information that specifically describes culturally competent psychiatric mental health nursing care is scarce. Lack of such information contributes to the health care disparity already experienced by many culturally diverse individuals, specifically African Americans. This descriptive study will employ a multimethod data collection approach consisting of focus groups, interviews, and a questionnaire. A questionnaire will be used to collect data regarding the registered nurses’ perceptions of culturally competent psychiatric nursing care. The focus group method will be used to document the patient participant's perceptions of the overall effectiveness of psychiatric nursing care in meeting their cultural needs and assisting them to self-manage their mental health care.  The results of this study will increase the nursing profession’s understanding and knowledge of evidence-based descriptions of the characteristics of culturally competent psychiatric nursing. This study will provide evidence-based descriptions of the characteristics of culturally competent psychiatric nursing care from both patient and nurse perspective. An additional goal would be to use this information to inform the profession regarding factors that influence care and the extent that psychiatric nurses assist the patient and family to self-manage their illness. The published results will benefit nurses by identifying culturally relevant nursing strategies and interventions that will assist in reducing disparities and improve the mental health of African American patients with mental illness.