The ethnic proportions of the population in the United States are rapidly changing, with the nation’s minority population at approximately 101 million. This is also true for the West Texas region, where locally in a city with 183,000 residents, 43 different languages are spoken suggesting that cultural education needs to be included in nursing program curricula. Therefore, a study was conducted during a period of curriculum revision to determine if the current nursing curriculum at a public university offers enough education and experience for graduating nurses to care for such a diverse population by comparing their perceptions of cultural competence with beginning sophomore nursing students' perceptions. Participants were asked to complete the Cultural Competence Assessment (CCA) tool in order to evaluate perceptions of cultural competence. Upon analysis of the data, perceptions of cultural competence among graduating nursing students were significantly higher ( ) than the perceptions of cultural competence among beginning nursing students. These results support that nursing students perceive that they have become culturally competent during their nursing education, leading to implications of the need for continued education relating to this concept, beginning with the first course and continuing throughout the nursing curriculum. 1. Introduction Cultural diversity is an issue that faces all health-care workers today. The immigrant population in the United States is increasing, which suggests that education is needed in transcultural nursing to allow nurses to provide culturally competent care. The nation’s minority population has reached approximately 101 million, and it is estimated that one in three United States residents is a person belonging to a minority group [1–3]. It is expected by the year 2050 that the Black, Hispanic, and Asian ethnic group percentages within the population will rise dramatically, and the Caucasian population will drop significantly [4], with the USCB (2013) projecting that the United States will become a majority-minority nation, no single group making up the majority, by 2043. Yet, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Minority Health [5], it is estimated that only 10% of registered nurses in the United States claim minority group status. The lack of diversity in the nursing profession mandates a need for cultural competence education in order to provide culturally competent care to an ethnically diverse patient population that is increasing [6, 7]. Currently, there are no education
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