Home care nurses: a study of the occurrence of culturally competent care

The purpose of this study is to describe how home care nurses orient to and manage cultural issues during patient visits. Fourteen home care nurse-patient dyads were observed. Interviews were then conducted with nurses. Nurses and the home care agencies for which they worked engaged in practices aimed at minimizing patients' cultural practices and beliefs. A correspondence with how nurses oriented to patients' cultures and how cultural issues were managed during encounters was observed. Overwhelmingly, nurses and home care agencies used strategies to avoid dealing with patients' "different" cultural backgrounds. Work needs to be done to begin integrating theory and practice regarding culturally competent health care.