The use of high-fidelity simulation to teach cultural competence in the nursing curriculum

The United States population is undergoing a major demographic shift, by the year 2050, it is predicted that minority populations will constitute half of the general population. This evolving population change is significant due to the overwhelming burden of disease that minorities face in the nation. Cultural competence training is currently being used to prepare practitioners to provide care to a diverse population in an effort to eliminate health disparities. With the increasing demands of the nursing curriculum and the limited time frame to prepare competent clinicians, the search continues for innovative strategies that will produce culturally competent providers. Patient simulation is a technique that replicates real-world scenarios in a controlled and nonthreatening environment. However, despite the legal and moral obligations that nurses have to provide culturally competent care, a lack of evidence exists regarding how to properly integrate simulation methods for cultural competence training into the nursing curriculum. In the nursing curriculum, patient simulation has been used mainly to teach the biomedical aspects of care with less focus on the psychological, cultural, and environmental context. The potential exists for the use of high-fidelity patient simulation as an effective teaching strategy for cultural competence training.