McGinnis Sandra L, Brush Barbara L, Moore Jean
University at Albany, State University of New York, Rensselaer, USA.
West J Nurs Res. 2010 Nov;32(7):894-909. doi: 10.1177/0193945910361727. Epub 2010 Jul 15.
Proponents of health workforce diversity argue that increasing the number of minority health care providers will enhance cultural similarity between patients and providers as well as the health system's capacity to provide culturally competent care. Measuring cultural similarity has been difficult, however, given that current benchmarks of workforce diversity categorize health workers by major racial/ethnic classifications rather than by cultural measures. This study examined the use of national racial/ethnic categories in both patient and registered nurse (RN) populations and found them to be a poor indicator of cultural similarity. Rather, we found that cultural similarity between RN and patient populations needs to be established at the level of local labor markets and broadened to include other cultural parameters such as country of origin, primary language, and self-identified ancestry. Only then can the relationship between cultural similarity and cultural competence be accurately determined and its outcomes measured.
医疗劳动力多元化的支持者认为，增加少数族裔医疗服务提供者的数量将提高患者与提供者之间的文化相似性，以及医疗系统提供具有文化胜任力护理的能力。然而，衡量文化相似性一直很困难，因为目前劳动力多元化的基准是根据主要种族/族裔分类对卫生工作者进行分类，而不是根据文化指标。本研究调查了患者和注册护士（RN）群体中全国性种族/族裔类别的使用情况，发现它们是文化相似性的一个糟糕指标。相反，我们发现注册护士与患者群体之间的文化相似性需要在当地劳动力市场层面建立，并扩大到包括其他文化参数，如原籍国、主要语言和自我认定的血统。只有这样，才能准确确定文化相似性与文化胜任力之间的关系，并衡量其结果。
