Defining cultural diversities experienced in patient care by nursing students in eastern Turkey

The aim of this study was to determine the cultural diversities that nursing students experience between the patients and themselves while providing care to patients and to find the effects of the demographic variables of the students on these diversities. This research was a cross-sectional study and was conducted between January 2004 and April 2004 at the Nursing College of Atatürk University, in the provincial capital of Erzurum in Eastern Turkey. The research involved 330 students attending the first, second, third, and fourth year courses in the Nursing College at Atatürk University. No special selection was made in the population of the study; instead, 263 full time students who volunteered were included in the study. Sixty eight percentage (n = 181) of the students were determined to have experienced cultural diversities in patient care. The students who experienced cultural diversity in patient care were found to have experienced these diversities in communicating with the patients (44.2%), in religious beliefs (6.1%), and in the life style (8.8%). In general, it was observed that nursing students coming from regions other than Erzurum and Eastern Anatolia and being at the beginning stage of their studies experienced more cultural diversities while caring for patients.