Nurses Cultural Competence in Southwest Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background Diversity is a challenge and an opportunity, resulting in a change toward providing services suited to clients’ cultural needs and desires. Nurses working with culturally diverse populations face unique challenges because of the coexistence of diverse cultural and ethnic societies. Hence, the study’s purpose has been to evaluate the current state of cultural competence and the factors that influence it among nurses in Southwest Ethiopia. Methods From December 1 to December 30, 2021, nurses at eight public healthcare facilities in southwest Ethiopia were enrolled in a facility-based cross-sectional study. Participants were selected using a simple random sampling. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Epi data 4.1 was used to enter the data, and SPSS version 26 was used for analysis. To identify factors associated with cultural competence, bivariate and multivariable linear regression analyses were performed. The significance level was set at p < 0.05. Results Two hundred thirty-seven nurses took part in the study, yielding an 86.1% response rate. The mean age was 28.83 years (standard deviation = ±5.48). The mean cultural competence score among healthcare professionals was 1.95 ± 0.32. Marital status (p < 0.05) and the use of healthcare interpreters (p < 0.05) were significantly associated with cultural competence. Conclusion Nurses had a low level of cultural competence. Cultural competence varies according to a number of factors, including marital status and the use of healthcare interpreters. Nurses are better suited to focus on the ethnic diversity of their patients, which necessitates the provision of cultural competence training for nurses.

Cultural Competence and Associated Factors Among Nurses Working in Public Hospitals of South Wollo Zone, Northeast Ethiopia: A multi-center Cross-sectional study

“…However, the current study nding is higher than studies conducted in Indonesia [24] , South Africa [25] , and southwest Ethiopia (1.95 ± 0.32 SD) [13] . The differences in ndings could potentially be attributed to variations in the levels of hospitals among the aforementioned studies.…”

“…The nal score is obtained by summing up the items [14,19,20] . Furthermore, each subscale of cultural competence-cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural sensitivity, and cultural skill-was categorized based on the mean score of each subscale into four categories: low-level cultural competence (mean score=1-1.80), low to moderate level cultural competence (mean score=1.81-2.60), moderate level cultural competence (mean score=2.61-3.40), and high-level cultural competence (mean score >3.41) [13,15,19,20] .…”

“…Furthermore, studies conducted in the USA, Canada, various countries in Europe, Austria, India, and China have indicated a moderate level of cultural competence (CC) in nursing care, suggesting a need for further improvement [6,[8][9][10][11][12] . Similarly, studies conducted in Ethiopia have shown that the level of CC among nurses ranges from low to moderate [13][14][15][16] .…”

“…Sociodemographic factors, organizational factors (such as lack of organizational support, participation in in-service training, hours of continuing education related to cultural nursing care, nurse-to-patient ratio, frequency of caring for clients from culturally and ethnically diverse backgrounds, and the presence of a feedback system in health facilities), language barriers, cultural differences, and limitations related to healthcare providers (including trained interpreter and translator availability, lack of knowledge of the patient's culture, insu cient multicultural nursing workforce, and shortages of nursing staff) have all been associated with the level of cultural competence [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] .…”

“…However, despite these efforts, the implementation of cultural competence in nursing practice remains limited and calls for further action [18] . Despite the imperative for healthcare providers to be culturally competent in a multicultural society, there remains a scarcity of studies on the cultural competence of nurses in Ethiopia [13][14][15][16] , particularly with no documented research in the study area. Moreover, in contrast to previous studies, the current study spans across multiple hospitals and encompasses a wide geographical area, facilitating a more comprehensive inference.…”