Paper
Friday, 21 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Professional Nursing Education Initiatives
Developing Clinical Cultural Competence: From Awareness to Application
Rani Hajela Srivastava, RN, MScN, Nursing Practice & Professional Services, Centre for Addiction & Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada and Ann Pottinger, RN, MN, Nursing Practice and Professional Services, Centre for Addiction & Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Learning Objective #1: Describe the 4 key components of cultural competence in clinical care
Learning Objective #2: Delineate strategies for moving cultural competence from awareness to application in day to day practice
This paper will present a model for interdisciplinary education to support cultural competence in clinical care in one clinical program at a large mental health and addiction facility. Previous efforts to foster cultural competence have included diversity education primarily focused on the development of awareness and knowledge of cultural issues. However, there is inconsistent evidence with respect to the education leading to practice changes. Research findings and our practice experience highlight that staff clearly struggle with "how to" apply the cultural awareness into daily practice. The lack of agreement on the theoretical underpinnings of cultural competence is a further complicating factor. This paper will present an innovative education program designed to bridge the gap between cultural awareness and the delivery of culturally competent clinical care - transforming ideas into application. The program is based on an extensive, interdisciplinary literature review that validates the need to move beyond awareness to skill development and draws on both the art and science of practice development, incorporating principles of knowledge transfer and practice change. A creative approach was taken to both develop and deliver the educational content. We will outline the steps taken to design, deliver, and evaluate this interactive, skill-based pilot education program. Initial feedback from participants, educators, as well as the program leadership has been very positive. A key success factor of the project was the collaboration across disciplines and departments such as staff development and diversity programs in both the development and the delivery of the educational content. Participant and program leadership feedback has been very positive. The process has been inspiring for us and our aim is to share this experience in order to build upon the strategies for developing staff cultural competence in specific clinical areas.

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