Cultural competency of Nurses in a Multi-Cultural Healthcare System in Two Regions of Ghana

Background

Cultural competency (CC) is imperative in Ghana where a growing multicultural society prevails. Despite Ghana’s increasing multicultural society, cultural competency is poorly understood or appreciated.

Purpose

The study aimed to determine the self-assessed CC of nurses from the Western and Ashanti Regions’ using the validated Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society’s Cultural Competence checklist.

Method

From October to December 2022, an institutional-based cross-sectional study in eight hospitals involving nurses was conducted using a two-stage sampling technique. Simple random sampling and stratified proportional sampling techniques were deployed to select the study hospitals and 759 participants respectively. Data were entered into a spreadsheet and exported to S.P.S.S version 23. Binary and multivariable logistic regressions were used to establish the associations between dependent and independent variables. Outcome variables with a P-value < 0.05 were deemed statistically significant.

Results

A majority of respondents were females (61.4 %; n = 466). The levels of the constructs for CC ranged from high to very high except for Cultural Encounters which was moderate: Cultural Awareness (Mean = 3.43 SD = 0.56), Cultural Skills Mean = 3.65 SD = 0.65), Cultural Knowledge (Mean = 3.53 SD = 0.54), Cultural Encounters (Mean = 3.35 SD = 0.68), Cultural Desire (Mean = 3.49 SD = 0.68), and overall CC score (Mean = 3.49 SD = 0.46). Nurses’ Cultural Skills were inversely associated with traveling outside of Ghana.

Conclusion

Nurses self-rated overall cultural competence as high. However, moderate Cultural Encounters are concerning as Cultural Encounters are the pivotal construct of CC that provides the foundation for the nurses’ journey toward cultural competency. Modification in training is urgently required to increase opportunities for nurses to experience Cultural Encounters.