Knowledge and attitudes of nurses toward culturally diverse patients

Linda Ann Rooda, Purdue University

Abstract

This exploratory study was designed to examine the knowledge and attitudes nurses have about patients from culturally different backgrounds. A questionnaire, entitled The Cultural Fitness Survey, was used to collect data from registered nurses. Subjects were selected from a pool of 3,242 registered nurses employed in eight major acute care hospitals in urban Northern Indiana. Three major hypotheses were tested using repeated measures MANOVA, one-way ANOVA, multiple regression analysis, and between group t-tests to determine knowledge and attitudes of nurses toward Black American, Hispanic, and Asian American patients, and the interaction of these knowledge and attitudes. Each hypothesis was further examined by analyzing how it might be affected by age, year of graduation from nursing program, level of educational preparation, years practicing as a registered nurse, percent of patients cared for whose cultures differ from those of the nurses, and whether the nursing program graduated from provided content on cultural diversity. Four major findings emerged from the study. First, there was a significant difference in knowledge nurses have about Black American, Asian American, Hispanic, and non-ethnic group specific cultures and health care practices. Second, a significant amount of negative attitude and cultural bias was exhibited towards Hispanics. The rank order of attitudes toward the other ethnic groups, from most to least favorable, was Whites, Black Americans, and Asian Americans. Third, a statistically significant positive relationship between knowledge and attitudes was found for Asian Americans only. Four, of the six demographic variables tested, only educational program emerged as a significant variable in determining knowledge, attitudes, and knowledge-attitude interactions of nurses toward culturally different patients. Age, year of graduation, years of practice, percent of patients cared for whose cultures differ from those of the nurses, and whether the nursing program provided content on cultural diversity had no effect. The results of this investigation seem to suggest the following: the effects of contact with culturally different groups may not be similar across groups; nurses have more positive attitudes toward their own ethnic groups; and, except for level of educational preparation, nurses are more alike than different in knowledge and attitudes toward ethnically different patients.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Gay, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Nursing|Curricula|Teaching|Bilingual education|Multicultural education

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