Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Nurses face numerous patients with different cultural backgrounds and needs on a daily basis. Cultural diversity can be an obstacle in the way of providing quality healthcare services. Cultural competency is the proper response to cultural and ethnic diversity in the society. This research was conducted to define the concept of cultural competency in nursing education.

In this study, Persian and English keywords related to cultural competency, nursing education and nursing curriculum were first searched separately and in combination on the internet and in existing literature. Consequently, papers that were more directly related to the topic were chosen and their concepts were extracted. Cultural competency refers to a set of knowledge, views and skills used simultaneously to enable the individual to work efficiently in different cultural conditions. In this study, first cultural competency was defined and then the process of its acquisition, the facilitating factors, barriers and consequences were described.

Considering that in Iran cultural variables are affected by many different factors, it seems necessary to investigate cultural competency in the existing cultural conditions. Moreover, there seems to be a need for comprehensive planning to provide solutions for professors and students in this respect.