Cultural Competence of North Carolina Nurses A Journey From Novice to Expert

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.