Socializing culturally diverse students: a historically black university's nursing education program

A convenience sample (N = 83) of RN and non-RN students enrolled at a historically Black university in North Carolina responded to a self-report culturally-relevant socialization questionnaire. The University has a long-standing commitment to the development and socialization of culturally diverse students. As such, the educational plan in both the lower division (general college studies) and the upper division nursing major is culturally sensitive. With the assumption that the process of socialization can be assessed during the course of professional development, the authors designed a culturally relevant socialization model. Using variables from the model, a 19-item questionnaire was administered to determine its efficacy in assessing the level of socialization engendered by the nursing program via the Likert scale. While the results were mixed, the non-RN students reported more socialization than the RNs, and all students perceived themselves as culturally diverse.