Nursing Faculty's Cultural Competency of LGBT Population

Background: An estimated 5.2 to 9.2 million adults in the US are identified as lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender. The LGBT community represents a distinct multidimensional group of individuals with unique identities, experiences and needs. One identified barrier that contributes to health disparity among this group is the lack of culturally competent health care providers. This lack of training of the healthcare workface leads to culturally insensitive environment further contributing to minority stress felt by the LGBT community. Nurses are the largest subset of the healthcare workforce in the US and they play an integral role in caring for the LGBT community. Previous studies however, have consistently reported that nurses have limited or lack knowledge of LGBT and that a minority of nurses have negative attitudes and beliefs of LGBT. One recommended strategy is to increase knowledge and improve attitudes among the healthcare workforce by providing a strong foundation in their education and training. Cultural competency is referred to as, “a set of skills that allows providers to give culturally appropriate high-quality care to individuals of cultures different from their own” (IOM, 2011).

Purpose and conceptual framework: Guided by Campinha-Bacote’s (2002) Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services, the primary objective of this study are to 1) assess knowledge, attitudes and cultural competencies of nursing faculty about the LGBT population. Secondary objectives are to find out the relationship between knowledge, attitudes and cultural competency and to determine the adjusted effect of age and gender on knowledge, attitudes and cultural competencies. The study hypothesized that there will 1) a positive linear relationships between knowledge and cultural competency toward LGBT 2) a positive linear relationship between attitudes toward LGBT and cultural competency, and 3) knowledge and positive attitudes combined will be more accurate predictors of cultural competency than if either of these variables taken separately

Methods: A quantitative, prospective, descriptive, and correlational design will be used. Eighty full time and part time faculty members teaching the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs from two regional universities (in Michigan and NY) are invited to participate in the survey. A sample of at least 30 nursing faculty is desirable to endure a power of 80% to detect a moderate correlation at 0.05 level of significance. IRB approval has been obtained from one university and awaiting approval in the other university. Four surveys were used to measure knowledge, attitudes, and cultural competence. The 13-item Attitudes toward Lesbians, Gays and Bisexual Scale and 20-item Attitudes toward Transgender Individual Scale are the surveys used to measure attitudes. The 15-item LGBT Knowledge Questionnaire will measure the nursing knowledge and the 25-item Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence among Healthcare Professional – Revised will measure cultural competence. All surveys have reported reliability and validity. Data will be analyzed using the latest version of the SPSS software.

Implication to practice: The proposed study may have substantial impact on nursing education and research. Results from the study may provide reference data on the cultural competencies of nursing faculty. It may offer information on the needs to train nursing faculty to teach LGBT issues. At the same time, it may provide insights for nursing programs on how to develop training programs that incorporate LGBT-specific context in the curriculum. Secondly, the proposed study may also add to the limited body of literature on LGBT research. Cultural competency studies are much needed in order to identify and address the needs of the LGBT population and subsequently a step away from decreasing health disparities.