Assessing culture: pediatric nurses' beliefs and self-reported practices

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Cultural Competence
• Pediatric Healthcare

Background:

• Effective nursing care requires cultural assessment for diverse patient populations.
• Pediatric nurses frequently encounter cultural conflicts in their practice.
• Understanding patient culture is crucial for quality healthcare delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe pediatric nurses' beliefs and practices regarding cultural assessment.
• To identify barriers and facilitators to performing cultural assessments in pediatric settings.
• To explore nurses' perceptions of how cultural assessment impacts care effectiveness.

Main Methods:

• Survey administered to 584 pediatric nurses across four Children's Hospitals.
• Data collected on beliefs, self-reported practices, and experiences with cultural conflicts.
• Analysis of responses regarding willingness to perform cultural assessments and time constraints.

Main Results:

• The majority of nurses work with culturally diverse patients and experience frequent cultural conflicts.
• Cultural assessments are not routinely performed by the surveyed nurses.
• Most nurses believe learning more about a child's culture would enhance nursing care effectiveness.
• Nurses expressed willingness to conduct cultural assessments if completed within 15 minutes.

Conclusions:

• There is a need for structured cultural assessment processes in pediatric nursing.
• Training and resources are required to support nurses in conducting cultural assessments.
• Time-efficient cultural assessment tools may increase their implementation in clinical practice.