Student nurses' experience of interaction with culturally diverse psychiatric patients

A study of Baccalaureate nursing students was conducted to explore and describe undergraduate nursing students' experience of interaction with culturally diverse psychiatric patients. Thirty-seven nursing students participated in this research project. Sixteen of the students came from a predominantly black university and the other twenty-one students came from a predominantly white university. Both universities are situated in the same city and allocate their nursing students to the same psychiatric hospital for practical experience. The student nurses reported having experienced both positive and negative aspects of interacting with culturally diverse psychiatric patients. Positive aspects included inter alia, optimism, racial unity, equality of facilities, enrichment and challenge, whereas negative experience included inter alia, discrimination, superiority complex, cultural ignorance, ineffectiveness of patient care, hostility and general unhappiness. The undergraduate program should therefore begin to include cultural content in the curriculum so as to enable future nurse practitioners to utilize a culture-sensitive approach in rendering care to their patients.