Do individual or organizational factors influence cultural competency of maternal newborn nurses?: a cross-sectional study.

Purpose: Cultural competency is a very important ability of nurses in women's hospitals in providing nursing care during pregnancy and childbirth. This study explored how multicultural attitudes, multicultural efficacy, intercultural communicative competency, and hospital support for cultural competency influence the cultural competency of nurses in women's hospitals.

Methods: A cross-sectional correlational study design was used. The study involved 150 nurses from five women's hospitals located in Gyeongsangbuk-do and Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea. Participants completed a packet of structured self-report questionnaires, which included the Korean version of the Cultural Competence Scale for Clinical Nurses, the Multicultural Attitude Scale Questionnaire, the Intercultural Communicative Competence Questionnaire, the Transcultural Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Organizational Support among Cultural Competence Assessment Instrument. We analyzed the collected data using descriptive statistics, the t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation coefficients, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

Results: Among the general characteristics, educational level, religion, and experience with overseas travel were identified as factors influencing cultural competency. In the final model, multicultural attitudes (β=.46, p<.001) and intercultural communicative competency (β=.19, p=.025) emerged as significant individual factors that affected cultural competency. This model accounted for 49.8% of the variance in cultural competency.

Conclusion: This study identified multicultural attitudes and intercultural communicative competency as significant individual factors contributing to the cultural competency of nurses in women's hospitals. Therefore, enhancing these nurses' multicultural attitudes and intercultural communicative competency is essential for improving their overall cultural competency.