Cultural competence and ethnic attitudes of midwives concerning Jewish couples.
OBJECTIVE
To examine nurse-midwives' general cultural competence and ethnic attitudes toward Jewish couples of varying degrees of religious identification during the birth process and the relationship between background data, ethnic attitudes, and cultural competence.


METHODS
Descriptive, correlational study.


METHODS
Academic tertiary care health facility.


METHODS
Thirty staff nurse-midwives employed at a university hospital in Israel.


METHODS
Participants completed Campinha-Bacote's Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence among Healthcare Professionals-Revised, Ethnic Attitude Scale-Adapted, and a midwifery demographic survey.


RESULTS
General cultural competence scores were consistent with previous studies of nurses who did not receive formal cultural education. Midwives' ethnic attitude differed significantly among Secular, Traditional, Religious, and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish patient scenarios. The most positive attitudes and lowest bias scores occurred for midwives when the patient scenarios were similar to or congruent with their religious identification.


CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study indicate a need to establish educational and practice content with clinical experiences to improve midwives' cultural competence and ethnic attitudes toward women and their families with dissimilar cultural backgrounds. These results have global implications for nursing/midwifery care considering patients' varying degrees of religious adherence.
Noble
Anita
A
Henrietta Szold Hadassah Hebrew University, School of Nursing, Jerusalem, Israel. anoble@hadassah.org.il
Engelhardt
Kay
K
Newsome-Wicks
Mona
M
Woloski-Wruble
Anna C
AC
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel / Q000208:ethnology*; D054521:Cultural Competency / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D007585:Jews / Q000193:education / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D016294:Models, Nursing; D009721:Nurse Midwives / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D036801:Parturition / Q000208:ethnology; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016746:Transcultural Nursing / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration