[Assessment of multicultural sensitivity in patient care, based on a survey]

The internationalization of societies and the processes of globalization raise new challenges towards health provision systems, including professional, ethical, social, cultural and communicational references of nursing and nursing education.

In this study the authors wanted to answer the following question: To what extent are health care professionals aware of and able to respond to the new challenges?

As an investigation method, the authors used a questionnaire and made a comparative analysis of answers related to the knowledge, skills and attitude of BSc nurses and other health professionals who possess a secondary qualification. The questionnaire was compiled based on the internationally accepted and validated Transcultural Self Efficacy Test. With the permission of the authors of the test, some questions were adapted to the national conditions. The responses were evaluated by statistical methods.

There were better results in the components of skills and attitude of BSc nurses but there was a very high number of professionals in both groups who either failed to have or could not meet the requirements and phenomena related to intercultural skills.

The survey performed among nurses proved that there is a real demand for intercultural skills and knowledge related to expectations of the society. In order to improve the quality of health care, the development of these skills is necessary.