Community of Communities: an electronic link to integrating cultural diversity in nursing curriculum

The inclusion of principles of diversity in nursing education has yet to reach expected levels of common understanding and value. Integration of human diversity is an expected outcome based on essentials for professional nursing education by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. This article describes one approach that used electronic networking to integrate cultural diversity content into a graduate nursing curriculum. Regional networking among schools of nursing about cultural diversity resulted in the Community of Communities (COC) web page. The COC is a common electronic network that contains information and case studies based on a cultural assessment model. Modules in on-line courses are linked to a cultural module in the COC. Several applications are described herein. The COC modules were evaluated to determine if participants gained knowledge and insight into another culture. Findings suggested that students perceived that the COC modules increased the awareness culture plays in health care.