Pedagogy as Influencing Nursing Students' Essentialized Understanding of Culture

Abstract

In this qualitative study, we explored how students understood “culture." Participants defined culture and wrote narratives regarding specific cultural encounters. The sample comprised both nursing (n=14) and non-nursing (n=8) students to allow for comparison groups. Content analysis of the narratives revealed two broad paradigms of cultural understanding: essentialist and constructivist. Essentialist narratives comprised four themes: determinism (culture defied individual resistance); relativism (the possibility of making value judgments disappeared); Othering (culture was equated to exotica, and emphasized difference); and, reductionism (personhood was eclipsed by culture). In contrast, the constructivist narratives were characterized by influence (non-determinism), dynamism (culture was dynamic and evolutionary); and, relationship-building. The unintended negative consequences of essentialist notions of culture were revealed in the nursing students’ narratives. Pedagogy is implicated in nursing students’ essentialized understanding of culture.

The obligation of debriefing in global health education

“…Cultural safety has been specifically proposed as a guiding concept for clinical education. It begins in the assumptions that health consequences of a colonial past on indigenous populations are witnessed the world over, and that understandings of culture and attitudes about difference are operationalized in health care practices (Browne et al 2009;Gregory et al 2010). These authors argue that critical frameworks are needed to guide and support students in their clinical learning to ensure that colonial biases and assumptions are examined as part of learning.…”

An Indigenous Nurse Educator’s Point of View - La perspective d’une infirmière et professeure autochtone

“…The work carried out by Smith 5 and Gregory 6 indicates that Nursing is one of the Faculties that has been slow to move and progress from this essentialist idea of culture in nursing and the barriers remain narrowly les mêmes. Les étudiantes autochtones ont toujours un accès limité aux études en sciences infirmières; elles sont mal préparées, au plan des études, pour accéder à un programme des cycles supérieurs; et les initiatives en matière de mentorat et de soutien dans les milieux de formation en sciences infirmières sont insuffisantes.…”

Improved Health in Ethnically/Culturally Diverse Patients through Enhanced Cultural Competency in Nurse Wellness Outcomes Educators

“…A review of the recent literature reveals that the quandary of caring for diverse populations has been studied in many countries, including: Australia (Allen, Brown, Duff, Nesbitt & Hepner, 2013;Koch, Everett, Phillips, & Davidson, 2014;West, Usher, & Foster, 2010), Canada (Gregory, Harrowing, Lee, Doolittle, & O'Sullivan, 2010;Stansfield & Browne, 2013), Cyprus (Vasiliou et al, 2010), Israel (Arieli & Hirschfeld, 2013;Arieli, Mashiach, Hirschfeld, & Friedman, 2012;Noble, A., Nuszen, Rom, & Noble, L., 2014), New Zealand (Caldwell, Lu, & Harding, 2010), Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Faeroe Islands and Denmark (Bohman & Borglin, 2013;Westerbotn et al, 2015), Taiwan (Perng & Watson, 2012), Thailand (Songwathana, 2013), the United Kingdom (McClimens et al, 2014), and the United States (Abrums, Resnick & Irving, 2010;Batykefer Evans, 2013;Beard 2013Beard , 2014Cantwell, Napierkowski, Gundersen, & Naqvi, 2015;Condon et al, 2013;Dapremont, 2014;Debrew et al, 2014;Dewald, 2012;Dudas, 2012;Dunagan, Kimble, Sweat Gunby, & Andrews, 2014;Fulbright Sumpter & Brooks Carthon, 2011;Greenberg, 2013;Harris et al, 2013;Jeffreys & Dogan, 2012;Junious, Malecha, Tart, & Young, 2010;…”

“…While the issues of recruiting and graduating increased numbers of diverse nursing students must be resolved, it is also imperative to simultaneously increase the cultural competency of all nursing students (Allen et al, 2013;Arieli et al, 2012;Bohman & Borglin, 2014;Campinha-Bacote, 2011;Carter et al 2015;Debrew et al, 2014;Dudas, 2012;Dunagan et al, 2014;Esposito, 2013;Fulbright Sumpter & Brooks Carthon, 2011;Gallagher & Polanin, 2015;Gregory et al, 2010;Harris et al, 2013;Jeffreys & Dogan, 2012;Kardong-Edgren et al, 2010;Kirkpatrick, Esterhuizen, Jesse, & Brown, 2015;Koch et al, 2014;Koskinen et al, 2012;Lim et al, 2015;Long, 2012;Mayo et al, 2014;McClimens et al, 2014;Mesler, 2014;Mixer, 2011;Mixer et al, 2013;Noble et al, 2014;Perng & Watson, 2012;Starr, Shattell, & Gonzales, 2011;Strong & Folse, 2015;Westerbotn et al, 2015) across the board; because at this juncture, there is an insufficient number of ethnically/culturally diverse nursing students in many countries (Baker, 2010;Brooks Carthon et al, 2014;Cantwell et al, 2015;Carter et al, 2015;Chandler & Swanston, 2012;…”

“…When the opportunity to become familiar with people from different ethnic/cultural backgrounds is not possible, simulations or scenarios may be useful (Bednarz et al, 2010;Songwathana, 2013) to enhance nurse educators' cultural competency. Esterhuizen and Kirkpatrick (2015), Gallagher and Polanin (2015), and Gregory et al (2010) note that cultural competence education may be lacking in nursing curriculum. Improving the delivery of cultural competence education starts by developing the cultural competency of nursing faculty as described above, as well as the nursing faculty's ability and desire to role model this competency (Bednarz et al, 2010;Mixer et al, 2013;Morton-Miller, 2013) for nursing students.…”