An Environmental Scan of Indigenous Cultural Safety in Canadian Baccalaureate Nursing and Midwifery Programs

Background The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) TRC has called to increase the number of Indigenous practitioners and include cultural competency education in their curricula. However, it remains unknown how nursing and midwifery programs are progressing towards these goals. Purpose To examine the extent to which baccalaureate nursing and midwifery programs are creating culturally safe spaces for Indigenous students, responding to TRC-recommended curricular changes, and including Indigenous content. Methods A digital environmental scan of accredited baccalaureate nursing and midwifery programs in Canada was conducted. Analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics. Results Of the 107 programs, less than one-fifth (n = 19, 17.8%) met all three cultural safety criteria. More than half (n = 59, 55.1%) included culturally safe spaces for Indigenous students, 20 (18.7%) satisfied TRC call #24 to require Indigenous-relevant coursework, and one-third (n = 36, 33.6%) were seen as infusing their curricula with Indigenous-related content. Conclusions This represents the first attempt to systematically catalog nursing and midwifery programs’ response to the TRC Calls to Action. Most schools have not made substantial progress towards cultural safety. Nursing and midwifery programs should commit to expanding their cultural safety programming to incorporate multiple ways of knowing and being in their curricula.

Psychometric Validation of the Revised Clinical Cultural Competency Questionnaire

Background and Purpose: Growing diversity in health care requires culturally competent care. Assessing nurses’ cultural competence is the first step in designing cultural competency education. The Clinical Cultural Competency Questionnaire (CCCQ) is one instrument to assess nurses’ cultural competence. Methods: The psychometric properties and factor structure of the revised CCCQ-PRE (CCCQ-PRE-R) for nurses was examined. Results: A 1-factor solution was noted for the knowledge and skills subscales. A 2-factor solution was discovered for the comfort and awareness subscales: differentiating between comfort in dealing with positive and negative cross-cultural encounters/situations, and differentiating between importance awareness and self-awareness. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were high for all subscales. Conclusions: The findings support the use of the revised CCCQ-PRE-R with nurses. Further testing in larger, more diverse nursing populations is warranted.