The project implemented over an eight-week period. The DNP student provided a three-hour cultural competency training to nine mental health and addiction treatment hospital staff. The staff are Registered Nurses, Social Workers, Therapists, Receptionists and Psychiatric Technicians. The cultural competency training offered on two separate days so that all the nine participants could attend. Participants had to attend only one training. The Inventory for Assessing The Process of Cultural Competence Among Healthcare Professionals-Revised (IAPCC-R) completed by the participants before the cultural competency training and immediately after the training, while the Cultural Competency Assessment Scale (CCAS) Level 2.1 was completed by the participants immediately after the cultural competency training and four weeks after the training. All the nine participants completed the IAPCC-R pre-training and immediately after the training and the CCAS immediately after the training, but only seven participants completed the CCAS four weeks after the training. One of the participants had resigned from the organization by the four weeks and no known reason for the other participant that did not complete the CCAS four weeks after.
The survey data analyzed to (1) identify if after attending the cultural competency participants had heightened awareness of ways in which the Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Facility staff could become more culturally competent and (2) identify areas in which the Mental Health and Addiction Treatment Facility program could become more culturally relevant. The participants during the cultural competency training and on completing the CCAS four weeks after attending the cultural competency training included suggestions that the program at the facility could become more culturally competent to enable caregivers to work effectively and efficiently in cross/multi-cultural situations to provide high-quality services and to reduce disparities in the care.
Findings: Based on the descriptive statistics, there was evidence of an increase in the level of cultural competency with the three-hour cultural competency training. The comments from the participants after the cultural competency training also indicated improvement in their cultural competency. Some of them reported after the training that they were more aware of their biases, would continue to work on them, and recommended that all the staff at the facility attend the cultural competency training.
- Comparison of the IAPCC-R pre and post-training survey.
Pre-training there were three participants in the range of cultural competent and six in the range of cultural awareness. Post-training there were five participants in the range of cultural competent and four in the range of cultural awareness. Two moved up.
- Comparison of the CCAS immediately after the training and the ones completed four weeks after the training.
The scores from the CCAS tool four weeks post-training increased compared to the scores from CCAS tool completed immediately after the training.