Purpose: To assess cultural competence among nursing students from nine countries to provide an international perspective on cultural competence. Design: A descriptive, cross-sectional design. Methods: A convenience sample of 2,163 nursing students from nine countries was surveyed using the Cultural Capacity Scale from April to November 2016. Results: The study found a moderate range of cultural competence among the students. The ability to teach and guide other nursing colleagues to display culturally appropriate behavior received the highest competence rating, while the ability to discuss differences between the client's health beliefs or behaviors and nursing knowledge with each client received the lowest competence rating. Differences in cultural competence were observed between students from different countries. Country of residence, gender, age, year of study, attendance at cultural-related training, the experience of taking care of patients from culturally diverse backgrounds and patients belonging to special population groups, and living in a multicultural environment were identified as factors affecting cultural competence. Conclusions: The international perspective of cultural competence among nursing students provided by this study serves as a vital preview of where nursing education currently stands in terms of providing the necessary preparatory competence in the cultural aspect of care. The variation of cultural competence among nursing students from different nations should serve as a cue for designing a focused yet multimodal nursing education program in guiding them to be culturally sensitive, culturally adaptive, and culturally motivated.

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This study evaluated the psychometric properties of the Filipino versions of the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL-F) and the Spiritual Coping Strategies scale (SCS-F) for hemodialysis (HD) patients in the Philippines. A convenient sample of 162 HD patients was included in this descriptive, cross-sectional study. The DUREL-F and SCS-F exhibited acceptable internal consistency and stability reliability, as well as excellent content and construct validity. The findings confirmed the soundness of the psychometric properties of the two scales. Thus, they can be used for timely and accurate assessment of religiosity and spiritual coping utilization among Filipino patients receiving HD.

Rationale of the Study:The concept of primary health care has ignited efforts of health leaders to improve the health status of people worldwide. This impelled attempts to reduce inequities through policy changes and interagency collaborative participations. With nurses at the center of the healthcare delivery, they could contribute much to potentiate attainment of equity in health. However, little is known regarding the realization of the concept of health equity from the leaders in healthcare down to the healthcare workers.Research objectives/Problem statement: This concept analysis provides a thorough review of the concept of health equity in nursing and relatedness to healthcare and health practices.Methods: A concept analysis method described by Walker and Avant 1 was used to clarify the meaning of health equity in Nursing. The concept's attributes were determined through extensive literature search. Model, borderline, and contrary cases were constructed. Analysis was further done by identifying the antecedents, consequences, and empirical referents of health equity. Results and Conclusions:Health Equity is attributed to adequate and appropriate distribution of health services which is closely linked to an opportunity to gain access to health services that is not affected by socioeconomic status or other factors. Establishment of relevant policies and effective promoting actions of health and non-health agencies are indispensable to realize health equity. Generally, it is believed that if there is health equity, there will be improvement of the heath status of people. It will yield greatest contributions to maintaining and preserving the rights of people in terms of their health and their right to be not deprived of services from vast network of health systems. Presence of which prevents disadvantaged groups to have greater disadvantage. The concept continues to be a major concern particularly in developing countries where socially disadvantaged population groups are at its highest. Implementation of universal healthcare may continue to be a challenge among health and non-health related organizations. Clearly, more intensive efforts are needed at various levels of policy development and implementation.