Aims

Unit A

The purpose of this unit is to provide nurses with opportunities to become culturally aware, to acquire knowledge of another culture, and to put this knowledge and skill into practice to maximise the benefits of cultural diversity in the workplace.

Unit B

The purpose of this unit is to provide an opportunity for nurses who have acquired cultural competence to extend this skill to become interculturally competent by internalising and integrating their previously learnt skills to the situation when they are the ‘outsider’ in another culture

Content

Unit A

Having completed this unit the student is expected to demonstrate:

1. Awareness of their own culture and its effects on their attitudes and behaviour

2. Critical analysis of ethnocentrism and judgements on another culture

3. Analysis of the culture of another country including its educational and health systems and the establishment of health care professional roles.

4. Application of cultural awareness and knowledge to working effectively with people from another culture in their own country

5. Reflective analysis of their feelings and behaviour when faced with cultural issues in practice.

Unit B

Having completed this unit the student is expected to demonstrate

1. Application of cultural competence to work effectively with people from different cultures

2. Reflective analysis of their feelings and behaviour when faced with cultural issues in practice in another country

3. Generic skills to enter confidently into diverse cultural contexts and communicate sensitively and effectively

Instruction

Unit A

Experiential methods using simulations will be used to enable students to become culturally aware. Facilitators will be provided with information packs to ensure a standard approach to facilitation. Following extensive debriefing the students will be prepared to use web-based materials providing information about another culture An agreed framework has been identified for the provision of web-based information. Students will use reflective journals to identify ways in which they have applied these skills and knowledge in their practice setting in this country or abroad and within another culture

Unit B

Students will be given extensive briefing before their overseas placement on the application of their previous knowledge and experience in another country. They will use reflective journals to identify ways in which they have used this application and how this will influence their future practice where culture is an issue. They will also have practical preparation for living in another country in terms of accommodation, cost of living, health screening, liability insurance and visa applications. Their web-based knowledge package and previous links with a ‘buddy’ from the other country will also serve as a facilitative measure in this respect.

Using Bennett’s intercultural sensitivity model students will conduct self-assessment both before departure to the host country and again on return. They will also be expected to ask their tutor to carry out a similar assessment using the Bennett model

Assessment

Unit A

All learning outcomes will be assessed by:

The students, in consultation with their unit tutor, will select a critical incident from their reflective journal and write an analysis of this incident. In their analysis students will be required to demonstrate how they have applied the knowledge of cultural issues in practice and also to show how the unit has enhanced their personal and professional development.

Indicative content

The meaning of culture, ethnocentrism and ethnorelativism

Self awareness in relation to cultural issues

Parameters of culture

Culture shock

Attitudes towards difference

Models for the development of cultural competence

Recognition of cultural competence

Unit B

All learning outcomes will be assessed by a 2,500 word essay where:-

The students, in consultation with their personal tutor and preceptor in another country, will select a critical incident from their reflective journal and write an analysis of this incident. In their analysis students should show how this overseas experience has enabled them to integrate and internalise their previous knowledge and skills and become more interculturally sensitive in working with a multicultural workforce

Indicative content

The development of ethnorelativism

Recognition of intercultural competence

Team working in a multicultural setting