Culturally Competent Care for Psychiatric Clients Who Have a History of Sexual Abuse

Canadian psychiatric nurses (N = 1,701) participated in a survey in which theyassessed their ability to nurse clients with a history of sexual abuse when cultural differences are present. Thirty-nine percent worked at a facility having a significant number of clients from a different culture. Only 4...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical Nursing Research
Main Authors: Austin, Wendy, Gallop, Ruth, McCay, Elizabeth, Peternelj-Taylor, Cindy, Bayer, Margaret
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications 1999
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/105477389900800102
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/105477389900800102
Description
Summary:Canadian psychiatric nurses (N = 1,701) participated in a survey in which theyassessed their ability to nurse clients with a history of sexual abuse when cultural differences are present. Thirty-nine percent worked at a facility having a significant number of clients from a different culture. Only 4.6% rated themselves as “very competent.” Four themes emerged from nurses’ assessment of their ability: culture is not the problem, culture is not an issue, culture influences perspective and responses, and culturally specific competence. Only one cultural group, First Nations, was identified by sufficient numbers of nurses to generate themes concerning the challenge of working with clients from a particular culture. These themes (abuse as a cultural norm, concurrent and related health and social problems, reluctance to talk about problems, a need to learn about First Nations culture, and developing culturally competent caregivers), critical areas of concern, and possible solutions suggested by the nurses are discussed.