Cultural diversity in nursing education: perils, pitfalls, and pearls.
Increasing diversity in the classroom challenges nursing educators to identify issues that complicate teaching (perils), analyze barriers for themselves and their students (pitfalls), and select new strategies for working with nontraditional students (pearls). This article identifies concerns arising from attitudes and values within nursing and common approaches to diversity education, and then discusses key issues in nursing education that relate to human nature, culture, faculty workload, and student demographics. Finally, some strategies are proposed for increasing the effectiveness of professional preparation with diverse students through a focus on culturally congruent education and development of faculty cultural competence.
Wayne State University, College of Nursing, Detroit, MI 48202, USA. ah4969@wayne.edu
Hedi
H
Bednarz
Stephanie
S
Schim
Ardith
A
Doorenbos
D000069:Acculturation; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel / Q000208:ethnology; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology; D003144:Communication Barriers; D054521:Cultural Competency / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D003479:Curriculum; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005181:Faculty, Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data