Cultural competence and knowledge of South Asian culture of registered nurses working in an urban hospital setting

Little research has been done to examine the cultural competence (CC) and knowledge of the South Asian culture of registered nurses (RNs) working in an urban hospital setting. The purpose of this correlational descriptive study was to examine the CC and knowledge of the South Asian culture of RNs working in an urban hospital setting. The hospital in the study consisted of a culturally diverse patient population showing the importance for nurses to provide holistic nursing based on cultural differences, and cultural skills. Convenience sampling was used to recruit the participants for the study. This study could be used as the foundation for future studies related to cultural competence and South Asian knowledge of RNs in an urban hospital setting. Data analysis involved the use of descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation, an independent t-test, and one-way ANOVA. The alpha was set at 0.05. The one way ANOVA showed that the South Asian Knowledge Score and ethnic comparison yielded a statistically significant difference amongst the groups. There was a weak positive relationship between South Asian knowledge score and Cultural Awareness (r= .209 p value= .021). The mean total CC scores were 71.9705 ranging from 57-88. The standard deviation was 6.47168. Significant findings were that the RNs were culturally aware, required more cultural knowledge, and were highly motivated in cultural desire. There is an opportunity for educators to improve RN's level of cultural knowledge. As the United States’ population becomes more culturally diverse, it is most important for RNs to gain cultural knowledge to meet the needs of patients from diverse cultures