Engendering cultural sensitivity in nursing students.

Abstract

Acknowledgement of the cultural aspects of the person is necessary if nurses are to provide holistic care to the recipients of health-care services. The nature of the content to be delivered, as well as the timing and strategies for integrating content into the curriculum, are well debated. A range of innovative educational strategies used by the School of Nursing at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to provide students undertaking the Bachelor of Nursing programme with greater awareness of cultural issues are presented. At QUT, culture is a theme that arises throughout the curriculum. Opportunities for applying these principles within cross-cultural clinical settings are made available to students. Feedback from students on a clinical placement in Northland, New Zealand are provided as anecdotal evidence of the effectiveness of these strategies.