Research Article: Cultural competence among Swedish child health nurses after specific training: A randomized trial

Abstract

An urgent need to improve Swedish primary child health-care nurses' cultural competence was revealed by previous research among nurses working in, and immigrant parents visiting, primary child health-care services. The aim of this study was to evaluate the extent to which specific training affected how nurses rated their own cultural competence, difficulties, and concerns and to study how the nurses evaluated the training. Conducted as a randomized controlled trial, the effects on a study sample of 51 nurses were assessed by questionnaires in a pre- and post-study design. The findings indicated that the 3 days of training were appreciated by the nurses and had some effects on their cultural competence, difficulties, and concerns. The training might have had positive effects on the nurses' working conditions as they rated it to have an impact on their ability to cope with the demands of their work activities in the health services. These effects are presumed to contribute to an improved quality of the health services, with a reduction in the risk for health-care disparities among children of immigrant parents.

Migrant-friendly hospitals: a paediatric perspective - improving hospital care for migrant children

“…A randomised controlled trial evaluating trans-cultural training in nurses [32] showed no or only little effect in most assessed points. The study suffered of low power, (24 in intervention group) and recruitment difficulties possibly affected the results.…”

“…International research on paediatric migrant services is scarce and focuses mainly on nurses [30-32,35], resulting in an evidence gap on the needs of other involved actors. Nurses’ difficulties described in the literature were mostly related to language, compliance, culture, family involvement, and diet [30,31,35].…”

A meta-analysis of educational interventions designed to enhance cultural competence in professional nurses and nursing students

“…A number of studies relied primarily on a simple lecture and discussion format, where students listened to an instructor and discussed cultural information with classmates or practitioners (Berlin et al, 2010;Lal, 2010;Musolino et al, 2009;Nokes et al, 2005;Salman et al, 2007;Sanner et al, 2010;Smith, 2001). Berlin et al (2010), for example, conducted a three-day training that followed curricula designed to increase awareness, knowledge, and cultural skills. A further few bolstered this traditional format by including a reflective journaling or a multimedia component (Anderson, 2004(Anderson, , 2005Heitzler, 2011;Xu et al, 2009).…”

Pediatricians and Pediatric Nurses in the Delivery of Culturally Competent Care: A Scoping Literature Review to Investigate Progress and Issues around Culturally Diverse Care in Pediatrics

“…The study reporting an increase in cultural competence of Swedish pediatric nurses following training 18 is an indication that training has an effect on cultural competence, but other studies in this review revealed that discrimination and health disparities still exist.…”