Nurses’ Views Related to Transcultural Nursing in Turkey

Background: Nurses are affected by the developments brought by the health sector’s globalization and is denoted with the concept of “transcultural nursing”. Nurses are considered transcultural healthcare personnel in transcultural approach to nursing care.Aim: The study aim was to determine nurses’ views related to transcultural nursing.Methodology: A descriptive study design was used. Participants were 80 nurses working in a private hospital in Ankara, Turkey. Data were collected using a questionnaire, designed by the researchers, which includes 16 questions and 15 statements on transcultural nursing. Percentage and frequency analysis were used to evaluate the data.Results: 87.5% of the participants stated that they had difficulties communicating with patients from different cultural backgrounds, 62.5% stated that they were not competent in transcultural nursing, 68.8% stated that their proficiency level in a foreign language was not satisfactory, and 74.5% suggested that foreign language education programs should be initiated with the support of health institutions.Conclusions: This study suggests that nurses are aware of the importance of cultural differences in healthcare and that they think including courses on the topic in nursing education programs, attaching a higher importance to foreign language education, and enforcing regulations that are more conducive to cultural interaction would help increase the quality of nursing care.