Implementing and evaluating a culturally-focused curriculum in a collaborative graduate nursing program

For more than a decade, nurses and nurse educators have been held to national and professional goals aimed at affirming diversity, integrating cultural competence, and closing the healthcare disparity gap. Faced with shrinking resources, meeting these goals has been harder to achieve. In September 2004, the Sullivan Commission report renewed attention to the widening gap in healthcare quality for America's growing minority population as well as the shortage of minority healthcare providers. The focus of this article is how faculty at a collaborative nurse practitioner program responded to these concerns. Described is a multifaceted approach, beginning with participation in a nationally recognized cultural awareness workshop and continuing through a process designed to bridge theory with clinical and classroom practice. Emphasis is given to the challenges of meeting the needs of a wide geographic area and the opportunities engendered by shared resources.