Multicultural or anti-racist teaching in nurse education: a critical appraisal

There are many conceptual and practical difficulties in teaching culturally sensitive issues to student nurses. There is little clear evidence about the most effective way that the subject of racism can be explored in the classroom setting. This critical appraisal is a collation of the evidence as a means of identifying current practice and the theoretical difficulties and debates that characterise this area. The evidence is based on English language material, largely if not exclusively, from the United States of America and the United Kingdom. We used CINAHL 1982-2003 and MEDLINE 1993-2003 using the search terms 'curriculum', 'education', 'nursing', 'teaching', 'minority groups', 'race relations', 'prejudice', and 'ethnic groups'. The central tension lies between a multicultural and an anti-racist approach, which reflects philosophically diverse opinions about what should be included in the nursing curriculum. The outcome of this tension is reliant on providing evidence about the experiences of students and tutors and whether the problem is one of difficulties in cross-cultural communication or racism. Recommendations from the literature for the teaching of multiculturalism and/or anti-racism are synthesised and discussed in light of the tension existing between the two philosophies.