Using clinical simulation to enhance culturally competent nursing care: A review of the literature

Increasing multicultural diversity generates a challenge on providing culturally competent (CC) care for both nurses and patients. Multicultural nursing education is the key to achieve new perspectives in nursing care, and therefore, it has gained importance lately. As nurse educators play a significant role in developing the nursing workforce to meet cultural awareness, knowledge, and competency in students, they must appropriately provide culturally specific nursing care, which is customized to fit the patient's own cultural values, beliefs, traditions, practices, and lifestyles. Clinical simulation is an effective educational tool in nursing education to master the principles of CC nursing care. The author conducted a literature review to identify the best practices in the utilization of simulation to enhance CC nursing care. Results revealed that the use of simulation can support CC nursing care by providing a safe environment to conduct a cultural assessment, elicit students' attitudes toward cross-cultural situations, and improve communication, critical thinking, and nursing skills. With these skills, one can recognize cross-cultural issues in interviewing, communicating medical information, and providing treatment and CC nursing care for patients from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds. Gaps in research still exist regarding the effectiveness of clinical simulation to enhance CC nursing care.