Effects of a cultural competence education programme on clinical nurses: A randomised controlled trial

Background The cultural competence education programme for health professionals aimed to ensure that all people receive effective health care, particularly those from culturally diverse backgrounds. Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a cultural competence educational course on nurses' self-assessment of their cultural competence. Design A single-blind, randomised control trial design was employed. Participants and settings Eligible nurses were recruited from a northern Taiwan medical centre with 2089 beds. Methods A permuted block of four was used to randomly assign participants to the experimental (n = 47) and control groups (n = 50). The educational course comprised four units and was conducted once weekly for four weeks, with each session lasting 3 h. Results A significant group-time interaction was identified regarding self-learning cultural ability, verifying the education intervention's effect on self-learning cultural ability after a two-month intervention. In addition, a significant main effect over time was discovered for total cultural competence; there was no significant interaction effect. Conclusions The study provided evidence that an educational programme effectively improved cultural competence in clinical nurses. The results provide a reference for health care providers to design in-service cultural competence education for improving quality of care.