A training intervention for home care nurses in cross-cultural communication: An evaluation study of changes in...

To assess whether a training intervention in cross-cultural communication can positively impact attitudes, knowledge and behaviour and to investigate possible dependencies between these components.

(Controlled) longitudinal multimethod evaluation.

A training based on theoretical considerations and informed by semi-standardized interviews with home care nurses was developed and evaluated. Participants rated their cross-cultural attitudes, knowledge and behaviour and answered case vignettes assessing their knowledge before and after this training. Shift observations assessed behaviourial aspects at t1 and t2. Data were collected between June 2016-March 2017 and between April 2017-November 2017. Analyses of variance and multiple linear regression models were employed.

The training showed promising tendencies with cross-cultural attitudes, knowledge and behaviour with diverging results for initially quite high self-reports showing positive but mostly not significant developments and objective assessments mostly showing significant positive changes. There were significant associations between self-reported cross-cultural behaviour at t1 and objective cross-cultural knowledge at t2, whereas self-rated and objectively assessed knowledge showed no significant associations. Shift observations showed significant positive developments in participants' communication behaviour.

Our study shows the importance of using different methods and targeting different outcomes areas to rate impacts of (cross-cultural) training interventions. Future studies should consider challenging conditions in home care nursing affecting the success of interventions and investigate mechanisms of skill acquisition in nursing.

This is one of very few studies using multi-method approach to evaluate a cross-cultural competency intervention and simultaneously assess cross-cultural attitudes, knowledge and behaviour including possible dependencies between these aspects.