Cultural Competence in Nursing: The Campinha-Bacote Model

This presentation delves into the critical concept of cultural competence within the nursing profession, emphasizing its importance in contemporary healthcare. It defines cultural competence as the ability to provide care that respects and considers patients' diverse cultural backgrounds, beliefs, and values, and highlights the potential negative consequences of cultural insensitivity. The presentation focuses on the Campinha-Bacote model of cultural competence, which comprises five key constructs: cultural awareness, knowledge, skill, encounters, and desire. Each construct is thoroughly examined, detailing how nurses can develop and apply them in practice to provide culturally responsive care. The presentation underscores the interdependent nature of these constructs, emphasizing their cumulative effect on improving patient outcomes and fostering effective nurse-patient relationships. The presentation concludes by reinforcing the need for nurses to continuously work on these constructs to enhance their cultural competence and provide culturally competent care in an ever-changing healthcare environment.

Developing Cultural Competence in Nursing

Introduction
• Nursing is a constantly changing practice changing due
to multiple stimuli.
• The contemporary nursing practice has been shaped by
the changing communal norms and prospects, medical
innovations, advancement in the medical technical
systems among others.
• These changes have necessitated the necessity to offer
a culturally competent care in order to appropriately
develop relationships with clients. Ignorance in cultural
awareness and the inability to offer effective care to
patients of diverse ethnic groups can significantly
increase the stress levels among clients and can lead to
ineffective healthcare provided by healthcare
practitioners (Loftin, Hartin, Branson, & Reyes, 2013).

Definition
• Cultural competence consists of establishing a
consciousness of an individual’s existence,
feelings, views, and setting devoid of allowing
exert unjustified effect on other ethnic groups;
showing comprehension of the culture of the
patient; appreciating and regarding cultural
variations; familiarizing care to be consistent
with the culture of the patient (Purnell, 2012).
• Multiple models on improving or developing
cultural competence have been proposed.
• This presentation will examine the Campinha-
Bacote model of care;

Assumptions of Campinha-
Bacote Model
1. Cultural competence is not an instantaneous
occurrence but is progressive
2. There are five elements of cultural
competence namely cultural awareness,
knowledge, skill, encounters and cultural
desire
3. Ethnic groups have marked differences than
intra-ethnic groups
4. Competence level is directly related to
providing culturally responsive healthcare
(Campinha-Bacote, 2010).

Model for Improving Cultural Competence in
Nursing: A model of Care
Campinha-Bacote designed a model with five constructs
for establishing cultural competence. These include:
1.Cultural awareness
2.Cultural knowledge
3.Cultural skill
4.Cultural encounter, and
5.Cultural desire
The model is beneficial to practitioners because it helps
them to ensure that they are culturally competent in their
practices. The acronym ‘ASKED’ is used to represent all of
the above components, and for the nurses to inquire “Have
I asked myself the right questions? (Campinha-Bacote,
2010).

1. Cultural awareness
• Individual assessment and detailed
investigation of individual cultural
and expert background.
• Includes the acknowledgement of
one’s favoritisms, predispositions,
and assumptions regarding people
of diverse culture.
• Help address cultural imposition
(Campinha-Bacote, 2010).

2. Cultural Knowledge
• Process of probing for and attaining in-
depth educational background regarding
diverse cultural and ethnic groups
– Involves comprehending the worldview
of patients, which is critical in
understanding their interpretation of
sickness
• Nurses must emphasize on the
assimilation of 3 main matters: health-
associated beliefs and cultural values,
illness prevalence, and effectiveness of
treatment

3. Cultural Skill
• The capacity to gather appropriate cultural
data about the patient’s issue in addition to
correctly undertake a culturally based physical
examination.
• It emphasizes on learning on how to undertake
cultural appraisals and culturally based
physical appraisals.
• Essential skill when dealing with ethnically
diverse clients
• Nurses should be understand the manner in
which the cultural differences affect her ability
to carryout precise physical assessment.

4. Cultural Encounters
• A mechanism that inspires healthcare
providers to openly engage in communications
with patients from varying cultural settings.
• The direct engagement is critical in refining the
current beliefs regarding a cultural group and
will help avoid stereotyping.
• Involves valuation of the linguistic needs of a
client
– Trained interpreters can be involved to facilitate
communication.
• Lack of knowledge on cultural encounters can
result to defective and inaccurate collection of
data

5. Cultural Desire
• The inspiration of the nurse to willingly desire
to be involved in the progression of attaining
all the other 4 constructs of the model.
• Consist of the idea of caring more than just
intellectual cultural competence
• Its more than a theoretical assent by the nurse
that he/she respects the values, beliefs and
practices of the client.
– The nurse has to demonstrate an interest or desire
to provide a culturally responsive care
• It is a lifelong process (Campinha-Bacote,
2010).

Conclusion
• The model of cultural competence provides a
critical framework in improving or developing
cultural competence among healthcare
providers.
• All the 5 constructs in the model have an
interdependent association with each other
• Nurses have to address or experience all the 5
constructs at anytime in their practices.
• Nurses need to work on these constructs to
improve their cultural competence and the
delivery of a culturally competent care in its
dynamic environment.

References
Campinha-Bacote, J. (2010). A culturally
conscious model of mentoring. Nurse
educator, 35(3), 130-135.
Loftin, C., Hartin, V., Branson, M., & Reyes, H.
(2013). Measures of cultural competence
in nurses: an integrative
review. TheScientificWorldJournal, 2013, 1-
10. doi:10.1155/2013/289101
Purnell, L. D. (2012). Transcultural health care: A
culturally competent approach. Vermont,
VT: US, FA Davis.