Assessment of cultural competence among nurses

Cultural diversity among patients is of the issues affecting nurses in clinical settings. Therefore, the cultural competence of nurses is essential to communicate effectively with patients and improve their health. This study was designed to evaluate the cultural competence among nurses employed in the hospitals affiliated with Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Iran, in 2014.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on nurses working in hospitals of Ilam University of Medical Sciences, in which 215 nurses selected by convenience sampling. Data were collected using Moulder's cultural competence questionnaire by self-assessment method, and then analyzed using descriptive tests, t-test and Spearman correlation coefficient via the SPSS 18 software.
Moral Considerations: Informed consent was obtained from the participants for attending and conducting research, after complete description of the research objectives and assuring that the information is completely confidential and has no effect on their professional evaluation process.
Findings: 55.81% of female participants had a bachelor's degree (95.34%) with 2 to 5 years of work experience (45.58%). Average score of cultural competence of nurses was at a moderate level (115.03±25.56). The results also showed the highest average score of cultural competence in terms of preparation for cultural care (50.16±13.16) and the lowest average for attitudes towards cultural care (12.69±2.50). In addition, there was significant difference in the scores of cultural competence between females and males (P=0.001), so that the level of cultural competence was higher in females compared with males. A significant correlation was found between cultural competence and years of work experience (P=0.040), so that the level of cultural competence improved with increasing work experience.
The cultural competence of nurses in this study was reported at the moderate level. Thus, according to the importance of culture in health and social relations, planning toward promotion of cultural competence among nurses is essential.