Improving cross-cultural care and antiracism in nursing education: a literature review.

PURPOSE: To appraise through literature review the available research evidence to guide teaching and learning regarding cross-cultural care for nursing students. Cross-cultural education of nurses with a focus on both culture and antiracism is one way of promoting ethical and effective cross-cultural health systems for people from culturally diverse backgrounds. Although cross-cultural care has long been recognised as necessary to nursing education there is no clear consensus regarding how it is to be taught or which theoretical perspectives should underpin this teaching.
FINDINGS: Current literature supports the effectiveness of cross-cultural teaching interventions in promoting cultural competence and in facilitating attitudinal and belief changes in nursing students. The literature further suggests that racism persists in some students following participation in cross-cultural education and that there is a paucity of theory, teaching interventions and evaluations addressing antiracism.
CONCLUSIONS: Cross-cultural education alone is insufficient to combat racism. Cross-cultural education focused on both cultural competence and antiracism is necessary to promote effective cultural care in nursing students. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.