The effect of a cultural competence educational intervention for first-year nursing students in Israel

To evaluate the effectiveness of an educational intervention to increase general cultural competence of first-year nursing students.

This was a quasi-experimental study that used a convenience sample with an experimental group and a control group and pre- and posttesting. The sample comprised 146 first-year nursing students enrolled in the Introduction to Nursing course divided into an intervention group (n = 58) of students from one school and a control group (n = 88) including students from two schools. The intervention group received a 2-hour faculty lecture on cultural competence, and students prepared and delivered a student group presentation about a cultural group in Israel, basing the presentation on Campinha-Bacote's five constructs. A demographic data instrument and Campinha-Bacote's Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence Among Healthcare Professional-Revised© were used for pre- and posttesting.

Students who received the educational intervention increased scores significantly (68 ± 6 to 73 ± 6, p = .000), students who did not receive the educational intervention had no significant increase (67 ± 6 to 66 ± 6).

Introducing the topic of cultural competence for nursing students in the first-year Introduction to Nursing course as an integrative learning strategy revealed significant increases in cultural competence scores.

Recommendations are to include evidence-based cultural competence teaching strategies into the nursing curriculum.