EUEF study assesses cultural competency among European nursing students after their first clinical experience

The World Health Organisation (WHO) notes that all countries need strong health systems and a skilled health workforce to provide culturally sensitive care. Therefore, cultural competence is a key component of nursing care and there is a need to ensure compatible nursing education systems in each country.

In this context, in order to assess the level of cultural competenceamong European nursing students after their first clinical experience, EUEF lecturers Laura Visiers, Isabel Baeza, Sylvain Marcel, José Ríos and Lara Martínez have carried out a study to find out through the Cultural Competence Assessment (CCA) tool.

This research, carried out transversally in 18 countries and 66 higher education institutions with a sample of 2,932 nursing students, has revealed that the average level of cultural competence of European nursing students after their first supervised internship is good.

Furthermore, the study found significant associations between the level of cultural competence and the language of the questionnaire, gender, religion, year of study, leisure stays abroad and international experiences in the home country.

This analysis represents an important progress with regard to the current situation of nursing education in Europe and serves as a starting point to create, implement and evaluate educational methods to enable future nursing professionals to acquire cultural competences at the end of their studies.