Self-reported Cultural Competence Research Articles

What’s Race Got to Do with It? Relationships Between Racial Match and School Psychologists’ Perceptions in School-Based Consultation

ABSTRACT Multicultural consultee-centered consultation has the potential to improve outcomes for historically marginalized students given its intentional consideration of their unique backgrounds and strengths. However, more research is needed to determine how consultants themselves, as school psychologists, conceptualize student problems, especially when members of the consultation triad differ in their racial identities. The current study analyzed extant data from a larger study examining racial match in consultation (N = 83), in which participants were randomly assigned to view a teacher describing a student referral problem across four conditions: (a) White teacher describing a White student, (b) White teacher describing a Black student, (c) Black teacher describing a White student, and (d) Black teacher describing a Black student. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine the relationships between school psychologists’ perceptions of various aspects of the consultation process, illustrating whether consultants’ representations of the problem differed based on the racial diversity of the consultation triad. Results indicated moderate correlations (r = 0.36 to 0.57; p < .01) among consultants’ perceptions of consultant-consultee collaboration, consultants’ perceptions of teachers’ expectations about students, and consultants’ perceptions of the student-teacher relationship. Participants’ self-reported cultural competence was not significantly correlated with participants’ representation of the problem. Finally, racial match between a White teacher and White student was negatively associated with participants’ perceptions of collaboration (B = - 0.56; p < .001) and positively associated with participants’ perceptions of the student-teacher relationship (B = 0.88; p < .001). Implications for research and practice are provided.

Pharmacy Students’ Self-Reported Cultural Competence in a Pharmacy Curriculum by Academic Year

ObjectiveThis study aims to explore results of a Cultural Competency Assessment of Pharmacy Students (CCAPS) survey to identify areas where cultural competence content in one college of pharmacy curriculum can be improved. MethodsThe 39-item CCAPS survey was developed and administered to Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students from July 2022 (after the end of the didactic curriculum and at the beginning of experiential rotations for fourth-year students) through October 2022 (at the beginning of the Fall semester for first-year, second-year, and third-year students). Self-perception of cultural competency items were selected from the Cultural Competence Assessment Instrument and the Clinical Cultural Competency Questionnaire items. Responses were collected anonymously and analyzed in the aggregate by academic year using SPSS. ResultsFive hundred forty-one students participated, with ethnicities including White/European American (26.6%), East/South/Southeast Asian (17%, 18.5%, 5.4%), Arab/Middle Eastern (17.9%), African-American/Black (6.7%), and Hispanic (6.1%). Two-thirds of respondents identified as “very or extremely” culturally competent, and 78% reported comfort interacting with culturally diverse patients. Students scored lower on questions that assessed their comfort interacting with patients who have limited English proficiency or who refuse medications due to cultural reasons. Students in fourth year reported more difficulty practicing skills related to cultural competency in their daily life compared to students in other years. ConclusionUsing the CCAPS survey annually could help evaluate the cultural competency of pharmacy students across different academic years and identify gaps in the curriculum related to cultural competency.

Self-reported cultural competence among Czech and Slovakian nurses: A comparative correlation study.

This study aimed to compare the level of cultural competence among nurses working in clinical practice in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Demographic changes have greatly affected the health sector in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. By identifying the level of nurses' cultural competence, many of the complications encountered in caring for patients from different cultures can be avoided. However, few studies have explored the cultural competence of nurses in clinical practice in these countries. This study was cross-sectional, descriptive, and comparative. It followed the STROBE checklist and used the Cultural Competence Assessment Tool questionnaire to collect data. Descriptive and inferential statistical tests were utilized for data analysis, using SASD 1.5.8 and IBM SPSS Statistics version 28.0.0. The sample comprised 424 nurses, with 202 from the Czech Republic and 222 from Slovakia, primarily female. Most nurses in both countries have not received cultural diversity training. Nevertheless, nurses in both countries indicate the necessity of conducting a cultural impact assessment of patients' health. Cultural diversity training significantly increases the level of cultural competence in nurses. Lower cultural competence scores can negatively impact nursing care for patients from different cultures, leading to additional cultural challenges. The findings highlight the need for enhanced cultural competence among nurses. Nurses need to learn and utilize cultural information to help maximize healthcare for patients from different cultures. By providing nurses with cultural knowledge and skills, they will be able to deliver more effective and culturally competent care to patients from varied cultural backgrounds.

A Preliminary Exploratory Factor Analysis of the BDSM Counselor Competency Scale.

BDSM practitioners represent a large sexual minority group often overlooked, misunderstood, and unnecessarily pathologized by mental health clinicians. Although developing cultural competence for diverse and marginalized populations is widely understood to be a core component of delivering efficacious therapeutic services that can counteract these stigmatizing mental healthcare experiences, no measures currently exist that assess clinicians' self-reported competence to work with BDSM practitioners. Previous measurement work has been done to establish self-report competency scales for clinicians working with other sexual and gender minority groups, but no such scales exist for working with BDSM practitioners. In the current study, we adapted a version of the Sexual Orientation Counselor Competency Scale (SOCCS) to measure clinicians' self-reported competence to work with BDSM practitioners and did a preliminary exploratory factor analysis of the new scale (n = 124). After an initial 24-item administration, principal axis factoring of our final 17-item solution revealed two latent factors (attitudes and skills/knowledge) consistent with the 2013 SOCCS and the theoretical constructs of cultural competency. The BDSM Counselor Competency Scale (BDSM-CCS) can help clinicians, practices, agencies, and training programs track self-reported cultural competence with the BDSM population. Future research directions for scale development and clinical and training applications are discussed.

Pharmacy Students’ Self-Reported Cultural Competence in a Pharmacy Curriculum by Academic Year

Pharmacy Students’ Self-Reported Cultural Competence in a Pharmacy Curriculum by Academic Year

Training in LGBTQ-affirmative cognitive behavioral therapy: A randomized controlled trial across LGBTQ community centers.

This randomized controlled trial examined whether an 11-week synchronous (i.e., real-time) online training in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual or gender diverse (LGBTQ)-affirmative cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) could lead to increased uptake of this practice at LGBTQ community centers across 20 U.S. states and internationally. A total of 121 mental health providers (Mage = 37.74; 78.5% LGBTQ; 60.3% non-Hispanic/Latinx White) were randomized to receive the 11-week training either immediately (n = 61) or after a 4-month wait (n = 60). At baseline and 4 and 8 months after baseline, participants self-reported their LGBTQ-affirmative competency, cultural humility, and knowledge of the minority stress theory and practice skills underlying LGBTQ-affirmative CBT. To objectively assess uptake of LGBTQ-affirmative CBT, participants demonstrated, through simulated practice, how they would respond to two video-based clinical vignettes. Compared to wait-list, participants in the immediate training condition reported greater improvements in self-reported cultural competence (d = 1.24), minority stress knowledge (d = 0.78), LGBTQ-affirmative CBT knowledge (d = 0.78), and LGBTQ-affirmative CBT skills familiarity (d = 0.91) and use (d = 0.96); effects persisted 8 months postbaseline. Cultural humility showed no significant difference by condition (d = 0.07). In objectively coded assessments of simulated practice, participants in the training condition demonstrated greater uptake of LGBTQ-affirmative practice skills (d = 0.82). Findings preliminarily suggest that mental health providers can be trained to deliver LGBTQ-affirmative CBT using the low-cost, efficient reach of online training. This training can help disseminate evidence-based mental health care to LGBTQ individuals and support its implementation across practice settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Cultural competence of Australian dental students

BackgroundAustralia possesses a highly multicultural demographic, and thus dental practitioners are likely to regularly encounter culturally and linguistically diverse individuals. It is important for dental practitioners to be culturally competent, however, cultural competency education is highly variable in the curricula of dentistry and oral health courses in Australia, and research is largely limited to dentistry students. This study aims to investigate and compare perceived attitudes, beliefs and practices of cultural competence amongst first and final year Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) and Bachelor of Oral Health (BOH) students at the University of Melbourne Dental School.MethodsFollowing ethics approval, anonymous questionnaires were completed by 213 participants. The questionnaire was adapted from Schwarz’s Healthcare Provider Cultural Competence Instrument and consisted of five scales. Data was analysed using SPSS V 24.0 software.ResultsA total of 213 students participated in this study (response rate = 88%) The majority of participants were female (n = 114, 53.5%) and the mean age of 23.5 years (range 18–40). The majority of participants were Australian born (n = 110) with 74.6% (n = 159) first generation Australians. Participants who identified as Australian represented 35.7% (n = 76) with 66.1% (n = 141) identified as partly Australian. Multivariate analysis indicated that, after controlling for other independent variables in the model, those who had the highest cultural competence score were female, who self-identify as “Australian”, who were in the final year. Furthermore, those who were in the final BOH year scored significatively higher than final year DDS students.ConclusionThe findings of this study suggest that there is a significant difference in students self-reported cultural competence at different stages of their education. This may be attributed to differences in cultural competence education, scope of practice and the type of patient encounters and role modelling that students may experience. Future research should involve follow up to create longitudinal data, as well as research at other dental schools in Australia and overseas.

Learning Outcomes of Diverse Oncology Professionals After the TEAM Cultural Competency Training

Racial, ethnic, sexual, and gender minorities are more likely to report challenges with oncology provider communication and quality of care. The Together-Equitable-Accessible-Meaningful (TEAM) training was developed to improve health equity across cancer care organizations by guiding teams of interprofessional learners through planning and implementation of quality improvements to advance equitable, accessible, and patient-centered cancer care. This study compared changes to self-reported cultural competence as measured by the Cultural Competency Assessment (CCA); Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Development of Clinical Skills Scale (LGBT-DOCSS); and Interprofessional Socialization and Valuing Scale (ISVS). The primary aim of the study was to assess changes to self-reported cultural competence; the secondary aim was to examine changes to interprofessional valuation from baseline to post-intervention. Results indicated statistically significant improvements in self-reported Cultural Competency Behaviors (p = .055), a subscale of the CCA, and Attitudinal Awareness toward sexual and gender minorities (p = .046), a subscale of the LGBT-DOCSS, using p < .10 as statistically significant. These subscale results drove statistically significant improvements for their respective composite scales. No other statistically significant results were found. This study suggests that cultural competency training among interprofessional oncology health care professionals can be effective. Given the growing diversity within the USA, additional opportunities for cultural competency training are needed.

Cultural Competence: Where Are We as Athletic Training Educators?

Context Cultural competence is the ability of health care professionals to investigate and incorporate the cultural needs of patients into care and clinical decisions. Research shows that athletic training students and certified athletic trainers possess moderate to high levels of cultural competence yet struggle exhibiting culturally competent behaviors. Therefore, an exploration of athletic training educator cultural competence and preparedness to teach cultural competence concepts is warranted. Objective The study sought to assess the cultural competence of athletic training educators and how prepared, comfortable, and confident they feel teaching cultural competence and related concepts. Design Cross-sectional survey. Setting Online. Patients or Other Participants Ninety professional-level athletic training educators (60 women, 30 men). Data Collection and Analysis Cultural competence scores were collected using a previously validated survey tool. The remaining survey items collected information about participants' self-reported cultural competence teaching efficacy. All responses were collected through Qualtrics and analyzed using SPSS version 25. Frequency counts and percentages were determined. Measures of central tendencies were calculated for continuous variables. A paired-samples t test was used to determine if cultural competence knowledge and exhibition of culturally competent behaviors differed significantly. Results Athletic training educators identified mostly as white women (n = 59/90, 65.56%) and had high levels of self-reported cultural competence (5.33/7.00 ± 0.66). However, half of respondents (50.56%, n = 45/89) believed they do not possess adequate knowledge of cultural competence concepts, and a majority of respondents were not taught cultural competence concepts during professional education (78.89%, n = 71/90) nor during athletic training-specific continuing education opportunities (54.44%, n = 49/90). Conclusion(s) Further investigation regarding athletic training educator cultural competence education is warranted. Additionally, barriers to recruitment and retention of underrepresented athletic training faculty should be explored to increase diversity within athletic training programs. Finally, an athletic training-specific cultural competence assessment may more accurately measure cultural competence in this population.

Evaluating Cultural Competence in Undergraduate Nursing Students using Standardized Patients

BackgroundThe need for culturally competent health-care providers is essential in reducing health disparities and ensuring positive patient outcomes. The purposes of this study were to describe the baseline level of self-reported cultural competence of undergraduate nursing students and compare between groups learning this material with lecture only and those learning with lecture and simulation with culturally diverse standardized patients. MethodA mixed method and design was used for this study. ResultsThere was a statistically significant increase in the level of cultural competence in both groups who participated in the study. Results also present thematically analyzed reactions of participants to the simulation in which several broad themes emerged including participants initially feeling nervous then comfortable during the simulation and finding the simulation extremely valuable. ConclusionThis research suggests that the use of standardized patients is an effective teaching strategy in nursing education particularly as a supplement to traditional lecture.

Assessing Cultural Competence in a BSW Student Population

Bachelor’s level social workers serve a population that is becoming more diverse. Social work educators must respond with adapted teaching methods, theories, and exercises to reflect the growing need for cultural competence in our practitioners. The 2015 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) outline the knowledge, value, and skills competencies central to social work education. These competencies include thorough integration of cultural competence in social work education; the ways in which this content is taught likely vary greatly between programs. This study assessed whether students gained competence as a result of taking a bachelor’s level social work (BSW) course in cultural diversity at a mid-sized public university. Furthermore, the study assessed whether their level of competence was related to student demographics, such as being from an urban or rural community. One hundred twenty-three students completed the California Brief Multicultural Competence Scale (CBMCS) at the beginning and end of a course specifically dedicated to cultural competence. Results indicate that the course itself is effective in increasing significantly student’s self-reported cultural competence. Study results lay the foundation for future research that will (1) assess more broadly the implications of a specific cultural competence course and (2) aid in the development of a social work-specific measure of cultural competence.

Cultural competence and perceptions of community health workers' effectiveness for reducing health care disparities.

Community health worker (CHW) interventions improve health outcomes of patients from underserved communities, but health professionals' perceptions of their effectiveness may impede integration of CHWs into health care delivery systems. Whether health professionals' attitudes and skills, such as those related to cultural competence, influence perceptions of CHWs, is unknown. A questionnaire was administered to providers and clinical staff from 6 primary care practices in Maryland from April to December 2011. We quantified the associations of self-reported cultural competence and preparedness with attitudes toward the effectiveness of CHWs using logistic regression adjusting for respondent age, race, gender, provider/staff status, and years at the practice. We contacted 200 providers and staff, and 119 (60%) participated. Those reporting more cultural motivation had higher odds of perceiving CHWs as helpful for reducing health care disparities (odds ratio [OR] = 9.66, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.48-28.80). Those reporting more frequent culturally competent behaviors also had higher odds of believing CHWs would help reduce health disparities (OR = 3.58, 95% CI = 1.61-7.92). Attitudes toward power and assimilation were not associated with perceptions of CHWs. Cultural preparedness was associated with perceived utility of CHWs in reducing health care disparities (OR = 2.33, 95% CI = 1.21-4.51). Providers and staff with greater cultural competence and preparedness have more positive expectations of CHW interventions to reduce healthcare disparities. Cultural competency training may complement the use of CHWs and support their effective integration into primary care clinics that are seeking to reduce disparities.

Cultural competence education for practicing physicians: lessons in cultural humility, nonjudgmental behaviors, and health beliefs elicitation.

Although numerous studies have examined cultural competence training, debate still exists about efficacious approaches to this training. Furthermore, little focus has been placed on training and evaluating practicing physicians. A skills-based course on culturally competent diabetes care was developed and subsequently tested in a controlled trial of primary physicians caring for patients enrolled in one state's Medicaid program. We hypothesized that physicians completing the course would show higher levels of self-reported cultural competence as measured by a Cultural Competence Assessment Tool (CCAT) than those in the control group. Differences in CCAT subscale scores were also compared. Ninety physicians completed the study, with 41 in the control and 49 in the intervention group. Most were female (66%), with an average age of 44, and 12 years in practice. There were no significant differences on total CCAT score (212.7 ± 26.7 for control versus 217.2 ± 28.6 for intervention, p = .444) or subscales measuring cultural knowledge. There were significant positive differences on the subscales measuring physicians' nonjudgmental attitudes/behaviors (subscale score 2.38 ± 0.46 for control versus 2.69 ± 0.52 for intervention, p = .004) and future likelihood of eliciting patients' beliefs about diabetes and treatment preferences (3.11 ± 0.53 for control versus 3.37 ± 0.45 for intervention, p = .014). There was, however, a significant negative difference on the subscale measuring cultural self-awareness (3.48 ± 0.36 for control versus 3.26 ± 0.48 for intervention, p = .018). A predominantly skills-based approach to training physicians did not change aggregate measures of cultural competence, but did affect key attitudes and behaviors, which may better reflect the goals of cultural competence training.

The Appeal and Problems of a Cultural Competence Approach to Reducing Racial Disparities

E liminating racial disparities in health care is a high priority goal for health care organizations. Disparities have been observed across a wide range of treatments and health conditions, from treatment of pain due to bone fracture to the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Inequalities between whites and blacks have been documented most frequently, but other non-white groups are disadvantaged as well. Research suggests that access to treatment and provider recommendations tend to account for the inequality. Seeking to eliminate racial disparities, many researchers and administrators have turned to cultural competence programs. Cultural competence in health care began with efforts to improve immigrant patients’ utilization and adherence by educating providers about immigrants’ cultures and how to effectively use interpreters. Subsequently, cultural competence programs were deployed to improve care for native-born minority patients as well. The approach is now widespread: the Affordable Care Act mentions cultural competence; several states require cultural competence training for medical students; and it is common in continuing medical education. The ubiquity of cultural competence programs suggests a widespread commitment to reducing racial inequality. In this issue of JGIM, Saha and colleagues contribute to this effort by presenting an empirical assessment of the effect of self-reported cultural competence on patient outcomes. In cultural competence terms, Saha et al. present important findings based on high quality clinical and survey data and methods. In this editorial, I will describe both their contribution, as well as my view that the foundation for cultural competence’s popularity is also the source of its fundamental problems. Saha and his colleagues seek to remedy a significant problem in the cultural competence field. As they note, there have been few empirical studies demonstrating that cultural competence improves the quality of interpersonal or technical care provided to minority race patients. Saha et al. tackle this problem by evaluating whether health care providers who rate their cultural competence higher have patients with better HIV management and whether there is a stronger positive effect among minority race patients. In order to assess providers’ cultural competence, Saha and colleagues had to first define the construct. Starting from the notion that cultural misunderstanding is a primary source of racial disparities, cultural competence programs began with efforts to reduce racial disparities by teaching about the “cultures” of non-white racial and ethnic groups. Quickly, criticism arose that this approach reinforces stereotypes about racial and ethnic minorities, suggests that racial groups have homogenous cultures, and fails to recognize how white racism and other systems of inequality affect care. Subsequently, most academic publications advised that to be cultural competent, providers should inquire about—and respect—patients’ individual health beliefs and attitudes rather focus on “cultural traits” of racial groups. Saha et al. review the literature and develop a survey instrument based on the current conception of cultural competence. Their instrument primarily assesses providers’ openness to patients’ experiences and perspectives, with some attention to knowledge of inequality. With this measure, they find that for minority race patients, there is a positive effect of provider cultural competence. These findings suggest that better cultural competence among providers will reduce disparities. Yet, we must proceed cautiously before making that conclusion. While Saha and colleagues’ findings contribute to the cultural competence literature, it is unclear that their research will be used to reduce racial disparities in health care. To understand the potential obstacles to reaching that goal, we must examine the cultural competence field in terms of contemporary racial ideology. Doing so reveals what may be an intractable conflict between the appeal of cultural competence and its real potential to reduce racial disparities. Before describing my perception of the conflict, we must define racial ideology. Generally, ideology is the broad set of beliefs that people in a society use to organize their thinking about the social world. Racial ideology helps people make sense of racial categories and inequality by Published online February 13, 2013

Cultural Competence Training for Clinical Staff

In an environment of changing demographics and health care disparities, it is essential that nurses continue to develop competence in providing care across cultures. This article presents the findings of a pilot project to measure and compare self-reported cultural competence scores before and after participation in one of the core classes of a cultural competence curriculum. Cultural competence of the staff of a patient care unit (N = 98) was assessed prior to the class, at 3 months, and at 6 months posteducation using the Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence Among Healthcare Professionals-Revised. The results demonstrated that following an educational intervention the participants self-reported a statistically significant increase (p = .03) in cultural competence within the category range of cultural awareness. Providing cultural competence education may better equip nurses to care for patients from diverse cultures.

An elective course in cultural competence

A cultural competence elective was designed to introduce student pharmacists to different cultural characteristics that can influence health care and ultimately improve the student's level of cultural competence. During this 10-week course, class sessions alternated between guest speakers who were recruited to share knowledge about their culture and interactive health screenings with those cultures. The inventory for assessing the process of cultural competence-student version (IAPCC-SV) was used to assess change in students' cultural competence and is a validated questionnaire. IAPCC-SV scores of ≥60 were considered “culturally competent” and scores were compared with the t-test for matched pairs. Results from the IAPCC-SV showed the overall students' self-reported cultural competence was significantly increased with this educational model. When individual constructs of cultural competence were assessed, there was a significant increase in four of the five cultural domains: awareness, desire, knowledge, and encounters. There was no change in the fifth construct (cultural skill). The use of area cultural liaisons and interactive health screenings increased the overall level of cultural competence among student pharmacists at the conclusion of this course.

Physician Cultural Competence and Patient Ratings of the Patient-Physician Relationship

To determine the association of patients' ratings of the patient-physician relationship with physicians' self-reported cultural competence (CC). Physicians completed a survey assessing their CC in three domains: motivation to learn about other cultures (motivation attitudes), awareness of white privilege and acceptance of a racial group's choice to retain distinct customs and values (power assimilation attitudes), and clinical behaviors reflective of CC. Their African-American and white patients completed interviews assessing satisfaction with the medical visit, trust in their physician, perceptions of their physician's respect for them and their participation in care. We conducted regression analyses to explore the associations between CC and patient ratings of the relationship. Patients of physicians reporting more motivation to learn about other cultures were more satisfied (OR = 2.1, 95% CI = 1.0-4.4), perceived their physicians were more facilitative (beta = 0.4, p = 0.02) and reported seeking and sharing more information during the medical visit (beta = 0.2, p = 0.03). Physicians' power assimilation attitudes were associated with patients' ratings of physician facilitation (beta = 0.4, p = 0.02). Patients of physicians reporting more frequent CC behaviors were more satisfied (OR = 3.1, 95% CI = 1.4-6.9) and reported seeking and sharing more information (beta = 0.3, p = 0.04). Attitudinal and behavioral components of CC are important to developing higher quality, participative relationships between patients and their physicians.

Cultural Competence of North Carolina Nurses

This study reports the survey findings of self-reported cultural competence of a convenience sample of 66 registered nurses of varying ages, gender, ethnicity, educational backgrounds, and experience in North Carolina. Campinha-Bacote's model of cultural competence and Benner's model of clinical skills acquisition serve as the conceptual frameworks. The process of cultural competence among health care professionals, developed by Campinha-Bacote, is used to measure cultural competence in participants. In addition to descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis of variance was conducted to compare means of cultural competence scores of different groups. Findings indicate that level of education, nursing experience, and continuing education are factors that promote cultural competence, whereas gender and race/ethnicity have no bearing. In addition, qualitative data generated four themes: language or verbal communication barrier, religious beliefs, different health beliefs and behaviors, and culturally inappropriate nonverbal communication. Implications of these findings for nursing education, practice, and future research are elaborated.

Cultural competence among nursing students and faculty

Healthcare consumers are entitled to culturally competent care. Therefore, nursing curricula need to include cultural content and student nurses and faculty members need to be culturally competent. The purpose of the study was to describe cultural competence of students and faculty at a college of nursing and to discuss the implications for nursing curricula related to cultural competence. Campinha-Bacote's model (Campinha-Bacote, J., 1994. Cultural competence in psychiatric mental health nursing. Nursing Clinics of North America 29 (1), 1-8.) of culturally competent care provided the theoretical framework. The Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence (IAPCC) (Campinha-Bacote, J., 1998. The Process of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Healthcare Services: A Culturally Competent Model of Care. Transcultural C.A.R.E. Associates, Cincinnati, OH. Available from: .) was used to measure levels of self-reported cultural competence. A convenience sample of 88 first year, 121 fourth year baccalaureate students and 51 faculty members at a college of nursing was studied. Analysis of variance revealed a statistically significant difference (F=43.915, df=259, p<.0001) between the three groups. A positive correlation was found between IAPCC scores and several demographic variables. Findings suggest that cultural competence can be increased by including structured cultural content in nursing curricula.