Clinical Assistant Professor University of North Carolina Wilmington Wilmington
Introduction: Rising reports of culturally insensitive care and the reported challenges that nurses and most healthcare professionals experience when caring for culturally diverse patients warrant the advancement of the intercultural readiness of practicing nurses, healthcare providers, and students. Culturally responsive teachings prepare our profession to support social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the bedside and in the classroom. The investigation identified archaic principles, encompassing significant gaps in LGBTQ+ health education and care, revealing a deficit approach to cultural responsiveness within the knowledge of professional nursing and other healthcare professions, including skills, attitude, curriculum, annual competencies, continuing education, and institutional evidence. Applying new strategies and recommendations from the findings of this inquiry can lead the change for healthcare professionals at the bedside to improve patient outcomes and for academia to generate and cultivate cultural competence to better prepare students to work in the acute care setting.
Methods: The study (PAR) involved an extensive literature review. The PI investigated the cultural content taught at the School of Nursing at a historically black college and university (HBCU) in the Southeastern United States. The participant selection involved purposeful sampling of stakeholders with diverse cultural backgrounds engaged in faculty interviews, student focus groups, and nurse managers from two major regional hospitals. A ‘critical perspectives’ framework guided this study.
Results: Participants’ responses identified the perpetuation of 20th-century cultural education and the omission of relevant cultural content in academia and the bedside, thus racializing, and stereotyping patients. Culture-specific information is also missing from the medical education curricula for physicians and other healthcare providers. Curriculum specialists agree that status quo cultural training cannot generate culturally competent professionals.
Conclusions: The inquiry illustrates that deficient education and a biased mindset impede cultural competence and the execution of culturally congruent care, which is problematic for healthcare professionals and patient outcomes.
