Effectiveness of cultural immersion and culture classes for enhancing nursing students' transcultural self-efficacy.

With diversity increasing in the United States, educators are struggling to find the most effective methods to prepare nursing students to care for diverse populations. This study's purpose was to determine the impact of immersion experiences and cultural classes on nursing students' transcultural competence. A pretest-posttest, quasi-experimental design was used. Nursing students completing a 2-week to 3-week immersion experience (n = 14) completed the Transcultural Self-Efficacy Tool online 1 week prior to and immediately following an immersion experience. The control group (n = 25), who were students not participating in an immersion experience, completed the instrument during the same time frame. Students who participated in an immersion experience had significantly higher posttest transcultural self-efficacy scores (p < 0.001). Compared with the control group, the students in the immersion group had significantly higher change scores (p < 0.001). In addition, the number of culture classes completed was not correlated with transcultural self-efficacy scores. Recommendations included encouraging student participation in immersion experiences to enhance transcultural competence. Copyright 2011, SLACK Incorporated.