Cultural perspectives on nursing in the 21st century

By the year 2000, more than one fourth of the US population will consist of individuals from culturally diverse groups. Increasing numbers of international visitors and exchange students will use the US health care delivery system, and US nurses will engage in international interchanges with increasing frequency. To keep pace with these population and health care trends, US nurses will need to base their nursing care on a theoretically sound foundation that draws on knowledge from the physical, natural, and behavioral sciences, as well as on research-based theories from transcultural, cross-cultural, and international nursing. The purposes of this article are to (1) trace past, present, and future population trends among minority groups in the United States; (2) examine the ways in which transcultural nursing has provided a framework for meeting the health care needs of culturally diverse people; (3) identify current issues and trends in transcultural nursing; and (4) suggest ways in which nurses can prepare for the increasing numbers of culturally diverse individuals who are projected to need nursing care in the future.