Nursing Cultural Competence in Israel: Does Practice Make It Better?

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Transcultural Healthcare
• Cultural Competence

Background:

• Globalization and migration necessitate culturally competent healthcare providers.
• Diverse patient populations present transcultural challenges including religion, socioeconomic status, language, and ethnicity.
• Effective continuing education is crucial for institutions to serve diverse populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of a transcultural training program on undergraduate nursing students' cultural competence in Israel.
• To evaluate the current level of cultural competence among senior nursing students.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 319 senior undergraduate nursing students in Israel participated in the study.
• The Transcultural Health Care Screening Questionnaire was administered to measure cultural competence.
• Data analysis focused on comparing current cultural competence levels with previous years.

Main Results:

• Overall cultural competence among the nursing students was found to be satisfactory.
• A slight decrease in cultural competence was observed compared to previous years.
• The findings indicate a need for ongoing attention to cultural competence development.

Conclusions:

• Cultural competence is a dynamic, contextual, developmental, and experiential process.
• Continuous curricular revisions and ongoing attention are necessary to maintain and enhance cultural competence in nursing education.
• Transcultural training programs require regular evaluation and adaptation to meet evolving healthcare needs.