A goal for nursing education

Current trends of an increasingly multicultural society emphasize the need for nursing education programs that effectively address cultural issues. To understand the diverse cultural backgrounds of clients, nurses must strive to be culturally competent. Cultural competence requires the building of cultural awareness, knowledge, skill, encounters, and desire in the nurse. Clients will feel respected, valued, and have a greater desire to achieve mutually agreed upon health care goals if the nurse is culturally competent. Nurse educators can assist nursing students in acquiring cultural competence using a model created by Campinha-Bacote (1999) entitled "The Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services: A Culturally Competent Model of Care". The model contributes to the development of cultural competence in the nursing profession by providing a concrete guide that is useful for teaching and implementing cultural competence in nursing education.