Relationship Between Nurse Educators\u27 Cultural Competence and Ethnic Minority Nursing Students\u27 Recruitment and Graduation.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to measure the cultural competence of nurse educators in accredited baccalaureate (BSN) nursing programs in Tennessee (TN) and investigate the relationship, if any, between nurse educators\u27 cultural competence and the percentage of minority nursing students recruited into and graduated from these schools in the previous 5 years. With the rapid rise of the minority population in the United States, more minority healthcare providers, including nurses, are needed to provide culturally congruent care in underserved communities. Literature has implied that nurse educators\u27 lack of cultural competence and sensitivity regarding minority nursing students\u27 educational needs could be a contributing factor to minority nurses\u27 underrepresentation. Nurse educators in 9 accredited colleges of nursing in TN completed the Cultural Diversity Questionnaire for Nurse Educators. Some of the participating schools and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Research Data Center provided the percentage of students recruited and graduated in each school by ethnicity. The findings revealed that the majority of respondents were at least moderately culturally competent. There was no correlation between Tennessee schools\u27 mean cultural competence scores and their percentages of minority students recruited into BSN programs in the past 5 years. But there was a significant statistical correlation between Tennessee schools\u27 mean cultural competence scores and their percentages of minority students graduated from BSN programs in the past 5 years (p = .015). There was a statistically significant difference between the mean cultural competence score of respondents who had lived in a culture different from the United States and those who had not (p = .01). There was also a statistically significant difference between the mean cultural competence score of respondents who had attended multicultural education seminars in the past 5 years and those who had not (p = .0005). The researcher recommended that nursing faculty engage in activities that would increase their cultural competence, enabling them assist students from diverse cultural backgrounds stay in school and graduate