Monday, 30 October 2017
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes of cultural competence of registered nurses who received their initial nursing education from associate degree community colleges nursing programs. There were 156 registered nurses who participated in this study; nevertheless, at the time of this study, they were enrolled in registered nurse pathway bachelors degree programs. There were three major variables of this study: development of cultural competence, institutional learning experiences in culture care, and cultural competent care at work setting. This article is focus on one of the major finding of this study, the predictors of cultural competence at the work setting. Design and Method: A five point Likert-Scale type questionnaire which included an opened-ended question was used to collect the data. Results: Based on the focus of this article, among the nine variables analyzed, results showed that the combination of two of the variables, development of cultural competence and institutional learning experiences were the strongest predictors of cultural competence at the work setting. Discussion and Conclusion: Institutional learning experiences in cultural care and development of cultural competence are vital to the preparation of registered nurses for the work setting. Because it involves acquiring knowledge and understanding about the differences that exist among various patients that are culturally diverse. Being culturally competent is also vital for registered nurses because it may assist with reducing health care disparities among patients from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Therefore, nursing programs should integrate into their curricular cultural learning activities and nuances that would promote the development of cultural competence before nurses enter the work setting. Work setting nursing administrators should do the following: survery nurses to identify their learning needs; survery patients' population to identify prefer health needs according to their cultural values; implement educational programs on a ongoing basis to address culturally diverse competent care.