Enhancing cultural safety among undergraduate nursing students through watching documentaries

Lucy Mkandawire-Valhmu, Jennifer Weitzel, Anne Dressel, Tammy Neiman, Shahad Hafez, Oluwatoyin Olukotun, Suzanne Kreuziger, Victoria Scheer, Rosetta Washington, Alexa Hess, Sarah Morgan, Patricia Stevens

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to develop an understanding of how nursing students gained perspective on nursing care of diverse populations through watching documentaries in a cultural diversity course. The basis of this paper is our analyses of students’ written responses and reactions to documentaries viewed in class. The guiding theoretical frameworks for the course content and the study included postcolonial feminism, Foucauldian thought, and cultural safety. Krathwohl's Taxonomy of the Affective Domain was used to identify themes and determine how undergraduate nursing students were progressing in achieving learning outcomes. Our findings suggest that while the use of documentaries serves as a tool for deepening students’ understanding of the realities of various populations, this activity, in the absence of critical reflection, may inadvertently promote stereotypes and further marginalize different people groups. Even though nursing students reflected on the importance of cultural safety in nursing, our findings indicate that their actions may not reflect this, especially since these students are in the early stages of the nursing program. Students need to be provided with a space where they can explore implicit biases evoked by exposure to new information about different people groups as a way of enhancing culturally safe care.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere12270
JournalNursing Inquiry
Volume26
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Keywords

  • diversity
  • feminist research
  • multicultural issues
  • nursing education
  • professional development
  • professional issues
  • qualitative methods
  • transcultural nursing

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