Social, Demographic, Spanish Language, and Experiential Factors Influencing Nursing Students' Cultural Competence

Background: Development of culturally competent nursing students is a core objective in nursing education. Method: One hundred sixty nursing students completed an online survey assessing sociodemographic information, Spanish language, service-learning participation, and cultural competency. Results: Degree of participation in the multidisciplinary farmworkers clinic (r = .374, p = .013), federally qualified health center (FQHC) (r = .387, p = .032), and short-term international medical mission trip (r = .433, p = .021) was associated with higher cultural competency. Furthermore, several demographic factors including being a native Spanish-speaker (p = .022), female (p = .004), Latino (p = .045) or a student of low socioeconomic status (p = .026) were associated with higher cultural competency. Conclusion: Participation in service-learning opportunities involving care for minority and disadvantaged communities, whether required or voluntary, was correlated with higher cultural competency scores, as long as the students' experiences involved direct patient care responsibilities. These findings highlight the need for identifying more diverse opportunities for service-learning and more diverse direct patient care opportunities to foster students' cultural competence.