Purpose for the program: Spiritual and cultural diversity of our population is prevalent in our society and in the clients we serve in our health care system.  Our patients have challenging medical complexities that require careful integration of their individualized spiritual and cultural needs. The effectiveness of the care nurses provide is dependent on their awareness of and sensitivity to this multicultural/spiritual environment. The purpose of this program is to determine if providing education, post education resources and a personal self-assessment could increase nurses' confidence, comfort and knowledge base in the area of spiritual and cultural diversity in healthcare.

Proposed change: This project was designed to examine the impact of an educational offering on nurses’ attitudes and beliefs about cultural and spiritual care.

Implementation, outcomes and evaluation: Data acquired in a pre assessment convenience sample of 29 NICU nurses supported the need for this project. Participants completed a self assessment tool to document personal perceptions to help increase awareness of their own values and beliefs that influenced their attitudes and behaviors. They were also given a self learning module to provide more intensive education. Additional resource material was also available post education. Survey data after project activities demonstrated significant increases in nurses’ confidence to provide appropriate interventions for families in spiritual/cultural distress by 72%, a significant increase in confidence of personal knowledge of spiritual and cultural care by 55%, and a 39% increase in overall comfort in discussing spiritual and cultural needs of the family. Lastly, 100% of staff felt that completing a personal self-assessment increased their overall learning.

Implications for nursing practice: Spiritual and cultural diversity awareness needs brought back into focus within nursing.  One of the main goals is to be able to provide state of the art healthcare balanced within a holistic plan of care.  Our patients present with challenging medical complexities that require careful integration of their individualized spiritual and cultural needs in order to accomplish this goal. It is now taking federal and state mandates to force the issue to comply with these standards. Basic nursing education only scratches the surface of what is truly needed for staff to be comfortable with the vast diversity we practice in. The effectiveness of the care nurses provide is not only dependent on an understanding of the critical care needed but also on their awareness and sensitivity to  multicultural/spiritual demographics.

Keywords: Nursing Education and Awareness of Spiritual/Cultural Diversity