Designing a practice-based, culturally sensitive model of health-patient education for hospital nurses to use in Saudi Arabia

The abstract This study aims to design a practice-based, culturally sensitive model of health education for hospital nurses. The theoretical and literature background to the meaning of practice-based, culturally sensitive models indicates that designing such models requires consideration of theoretical assumptions and evidence-based findings related to both health education practice and cultural sensitivity. Hence, the study has to use the study findings to create the final model design. The study objectives that needed to be answered using mixed methods include:1) Identify which health education skills are most valued by hospital nurses in Saudi Arabia; 2) Explore the self-perceived competence levels of Saudi hospital nurses when delivering health education; 3) Identify which aspects of health education knowledge are most valued by hospital nurses in Saudi Arabia; 4) Identify any organisational barriers that might impact on the delivery of health education in Saudi Arabian hospitals; 5) Identify any strategies that might impact on improving the delivery of culturally sensitive health education in Saudi hospitals. The results have found several important skills and subjects of knowledge related to health education, low confidence levels for the majority of measured skills among nurses, the presence of culture, nursing, the workplace and educational barriers to health education practice, and also recommended several culturally sensitive strategies able to help to deal with Saudi cultural norms and values. Therefore, from the discussion of theoretical assumptions, literature and evidence-based findings of the study results, the final model is created and indicates that practice-based, culturally sensitive health education requires several interventions at two levels. The model consists of two dimensions including internal and external dimensions. The internal dimension reflects actions inside hospitals, which include continuous education, barrier removal and motivational interventions. Actions outside hospitals include updating nursing policies, cooperation with community organisations and use of the media