Cultural Bias Education of Nursing Faculty

Census reports indicate that the United States population is rapidly growing and is currently comprised of more than 150 diverse ethnic groups of people from other nations and cultures. The increase in the diversity of cultures in the U.S. population poses two major questions for health care; how to provide care that is culturally sensitive and effective and why is important to do so? Nurses, about 2.3 million, comprise the largest component of the health care workforce. The need for cultural competence training in nursing education is evident, and although certain measures have been initiated, very few are focused on those providing nursing education, the nursing faculty. A cultural bias education seminar was presented to nursing faculty at a private university in Western North Carolina in an attempt to increase the level of cultural competence. Leininger’s “Culture Care and Universality”; a nursing theory was used as the theoretical framework for the project and Campinha-Bacote’s Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competency Among Healthcare Professionals, Revised (IAPCC-R) was employed to measure the pre- and post-cultural competence levels of the nursing faculty.  The faculty voluntarily completed the pre-assessment, the seminar was completed and 17 participants completed the post assessment.   The statistical findings illustrated an increase in total cultural competence from a pre-intervention mean of 67.5 (SD=7.29) or culturally aware, to a post intervention mean of 74.53 (SD=9.24) or culturally competent. The findings proved to be statistically significant (level of significance α = 0.05) with a p value of 0.01. There was an eight-fold increase in the number of nursing faculty deemed culturally competent in the post assessment as measured by the IAPCC-R.