Cohesion Challenges in a Multicultural Nursing Team

Aim

This study aimed to explore and describe the cohesion challenges that the multicultural nursing team of a cardiac centre in a designated hospital in Saudi Arabia experienced.

Background

The World Health Organization predicts a huge global shortage of nurses by 2030. Healthcare services will have to recruit nurses from other countries. Internationally recruited nurses’ poor understanding of their colleagues’ and patients’ cultural backgrounds may lead to cohesive challenges in teams to the detriment of quality patient care.

Methods

A descriptive qualitative design was applied. Face-to-face interviews were done with 15 participants (five nurse managers and ten nurses), their ages ranging between 30 and 50 years. They were from different countries and cultural backgrounds. One open-ended question was used ‘What cohesion challenges does the multicultural nursing team of the cardiac centre experience, and what support should they get from management to overcome these challenges?’ A thematic data analysis was done.

Results

Cohesion challenges were experienced due to poor communication, the exclusion of members in decision making, a lack of meaningful team-building events and limited introduction of newly appointed members. The diversity of the team led to the alienation of some members, and the internationally recruited nurses felt that they were expected to conform to the expectations of the Saudi members.

Conclusions

The participants did not appreciate the benefits of multicultural teams and only focussed on the challenges that they experienced to function as a cohesive unit. The participants wanted to be respected, acknowledged and valued as team members.

Implications for nursing and health policy

Managers should invest in cultural competence training, the enhancement of communication practices and the encouragement of trust among members to ultimately improve team cohesion.