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Transcultural nursing: Health care providers and ethnically diverse clients

Katherine Mary Kelly, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Abstract

This study was designed to explore through two surveys and interviews the question of confidence levels of practicing professional nurses in giving quality care to ethnically diverse client populations. One questionnaire to nursing faculty in 170 colleges and universities across the United States was concerned with the transcultural educational preparation of students, and the second questionnaire to 40 community health agency and inpatient (hospital) facility nurses pertained to their present level of confidence. The comments on situations encountered by practicing professional nurses and how they handled the situation were sought. These nurses also discussed how transcultural education would have helped them to either prevent or solve the problems. Faculty were surveyed regarding the inclusion of transcultural nursing concepts in their nursing curricula, their transcultural education background, and the ethnic background of their student and client populations. The practicing professional nurses were surveyed as to their personal and professional backgrounds and their knowledge of and perceived confidence levels in giving holistic nursing care to three different ethnic groups--Asians, Blacks, Southeast Asians and Spanish-speaking people. Three variables were assessed; namely, family organization, health care beliefs and lifestyles. Results indicated that in the surveys of the colleges and universities 96.3% of the nursing programs included some general transcultural nursing concepts in their courses and 31,5% offered them in theory, seminar and clinical components of the program. Only 26% of those who responded offered specific courses or certification classes. In order to assist students in developing cultural awareness 74.1% of the colleges and universities offer clinical experiences with ethnically diverse populations. The second part of the survey (Self-efficacy) illustrated a definite lack of confidence in giving holistic nursing care to Asian/Southeast Asian clients. Although there appears to be no significant relationship between the three major ethnic minorities and the inclusion of transcultural nursing concepts or the number of years since graduation, there are definite levels of significance between the variables of family organization, health care beliefs, and lifestyles and background information as to the type of nursing program, length and place of employment, and past clinical experiences with ethnic minorities.

Subject Area

Nursing|Bilingual education|Multicultural education|Health education

Recommended Citation

Kelly, Katherine Mary, "Transcultural nursing: Health care providers and ethnically diverse clients" (1991). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9132873.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9132873

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