Cultural Competence in Academia

Abstract

Introduction:Teaching and becoming culturally competent are concepts that have and continue to evolve partly due to the language being used such as culturally competent, culturally sensitive, and cultural humility. With such an influx of ethnically diverse populations, nurses need to become competent in the care of patients from many cultural backgrounds. Faculty must first be culturally competent to provide this pedagogy for nursing students. This paper explores and analyzes the cultural competence of Baccalaureate Nursing Faculty in the United States.Method:This study was conducted using a quantitative, descriptive approach among baccalaureate nursing faculty. The Multicultural Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills Survey (MAKSS) tool was used for this study. The survey was sent to 70 randomly selected baccalaureate nursing program Deans and/or Associate Deans listed on a public web site. The sample was purposely chosen to represent at least one program from each of the 50 states across the United States.Results:Ninety-four responses were received. Of the 94 responses, 37 surveys were incomplete, leaving a sample size of 57. An analysis was completed on the 57 completed surveys. Limitations include the length of the survey (60 questions) as the authors found that some participants did not answer all the questions. Although faculty rated themselves high regarding being able to identify cultural biases, faculty highlighted the need for more education on culture.Conclusion:Faculty appear to be culturally aware and recognize the need for more education to achieve a culturally competent skill set. With the increase in the influx of immigrants from all over the world, the population of the United States is changing. Cultural competence needs to be included in curricula to ensure that patients are advocated for and respected.