Transcultural Nurse Views on Culture-Sensitive/Patient-Centered Assessment and Care Planning: A Descriptive Study

Culture-sensitive (CS) and patient-centered (PC) care are considered essential to achieve high-quality equitable care. The purpose of this study was to determine how expert nurses incorporate CS/PC care into their assessment and care planning practices, especially for culturally diverse and marginalized patients.

Using a qualitative, descriptive design, we conducted a focus group at the October 2019 Transcultural Nursing Society Conference. Participants (n = 9) discussed how they instilled cultural sensitivity and patient-centeredness into their assessment and care planning skills.

Participants revealed attitudes, knowledge, and skills associated with CS/PC assessment and care planning. They also identified specific strategies for translating CS/PC theory into assessment and care planning practices.

Three principles and many pragmatic strategies for incorporating CS/PC care into daily practice emerged from the data. Nurses may find these principles and strategies helpful in integrating CS/PC care into their daily care of patients in busy clinical settings.