Awareness of Nurses Regarding Culturally Competent Care in Hospitals of Punjab: Cross Sectional Study

Background: Nursing profession is one of the professions which is continuously developing and uniformly acclimatizing to not only new medical treatments and expansions but also adapting the socio-cultural norms and expectations. Aim: To analyze the level of nurses' awareness regarding culturally competent care in three selected hospitals of Punjab. Study design: Cross-sectional study. Methodology: Study setting was public hospitals of Punjab-Pakistan after ethical review committee's (ERC) approval. Data was collected from nurses (n=133) by using self-administered questionnaire that was adapted from cultural awareness assessment tool. They were selected from three hospitals through non-probability convenient sampling technique. Statistical analysis: Data was analyzed by using SPSS version-20. To summarize the results, mean +/- SD, frequencies, percentages and graphs were used. Results: Overall average score of cultural competence was 24.31 +/- 3.457 which was on the lower side. Scores of Muzaffar Garh nurses was statistically significantly higher than both hospitals (p-value <0.001). This variation is due to years of experience (4-6 years) of nurses in Muzaffar Garh. Perhaps, comparatively long period of experience made them aware of the cultural practices of the people. Conclusion: We concluded that frequent and long-term interaction of nurses with patient which may help nurses in developing understanding of client's culture because novice nurses are not able to understand point of view of the patients with diverse culture as they are not prepared to deal with the problems of cultural diversity.