Bridging the gap between nursing service and education with learning experience on cultural care

Abstract

Thailand has dramatic changed of health care services since government launched the policy to strengthen country to be the excellent Health Hub of Asia. So, the nursing curriculum has been revised appropriately which consisted of one subject related to cultural care diversity in order to prepare the graduated nurse to work harmoniously with the needs of clients. This research investigated nursing students for cultural care knowledge toward clients with different cultures before and after learning about Multiculturalism in Health Care. Learning module of cultural cares for six majority international clients who have received health services in Thai hospital including American, Western, Chinese, Japanese, Arab Muslim, and Asian people together with assignment about their folk cares were implemented for 77 sophomore nursing students as the intervention in this research. Focus group interview questions were tested by expert judgment and used for data collection among 12 volunteer participants before and after learning to evaluate their knowledge how to take care of clients from these various cultures. Generic method of content analysis was employed for qualitative data analysis. The results revealed that nurses who took care of multicultural clients needed to have clear understanding about beliefs of clients related to health including causes of illness, eating habits, color, space, and time. Moreover, folk care was the important factor influencing health care behaviors. In conclusion, participants gained more knowledge to take care of clients from six cultures after completing learning activities and positive attitude was reflected while providing nursing care to international clients. Research ethical consideration was concerned which participants had to sign consent form before participating in the data collection process and could withdraw if physical or psychological discomfort was presented.