title: Swedish version of measuring cultural awareness in nursing students: validity and reliability test.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nearly 20 % of the Swedish population is foreign-born. Increased exposure of patients from diverse cultures means there is an urgent need to address their unique requirements and provide optimal health care to a diverse population. Nursing schools thus have an important goal of educating nurses to ensure they are culturally competent. Culturally competent care improves safety and equity for patients. To measure cultural awareness among nursing students in Sweden, the aim of this study was to translate, adapt and test the validity and reliability of the Swedish version of a cultural awareness scale which has not previously been tested.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 158 nursing students from three universities in Sweden completed the 36-item questionnaire on cultural awareness. Verification of face and content validity and a translation/reverse translation process were first carried out.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results indicate that one item (no 13) caused weak reliability and validity, and therefore it was removed. The reliability test result (with 35 items) showed Cronbach's Alpha ranged from 0.60 to 0.87. The Model ChiSq group fit for five factors was 50.44 (31.27-77.06; Df = 5; p < 0.001), and the RMSEA was 0.24 (C.I 95 % = 0.18-0.30).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings of the validity and reliability tests revealed that the CAS-scale for the 35 items is valid and reliable for use with Swedish nursing students. However, the CAS should be further tested in larger and more diverse samples of nursing students before being used in different socio-cultural settings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Caring Science, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Linnaeus University, 351 95 Växjö, Sweden.
authors.forename: Emina
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hadziabdic
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Caring Science, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Linnaeus University, 351 95 Växjö, Sweden.
authors.forename: Jalal
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Safipour
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Health Sciences, Linköping University, 581 83 Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Margareta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bachrach-Lindström
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Box 1026, 551 11 Jönköping, Sweden ; Psychiatric Clinic, County Hospital Ryhov, 55185 Jönköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Sally
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hultsjö
keywords: Cultural competency/education; Cultural diversity; Factor analysis, Statistical, Health; Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Psychometrics; Students, Nursing; Surveys and questionnaires/standards; Transcultural nursing