University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.
J Transcult Nurs. 2012 Apr;23(2):198-204. doi: 10.1177/1043659611434061. Epub 2012 Jan 31.
Cultural competence is an expectation of professional practice, yet effectively teaching this concept to nursing students is challenging. The purpose of this study was to assess the use of a virtual community as a teaching application to foster cultural awareness among nursing students.
This correlational study involved the collection of two surveys from 342 first-semester students from five baccalaureate nursing programs that used The Neighborhood virtual community during one semester. Descriptive and comparative analyses were performed.
Results suggest that use of the virtual community may have contributed to cultural awareness among student participants. There was a significant correlation between frequency of use and cultural awareness. Virtual communities may represent a useful teaching application for cultural competence in nursing education. Further research is needed to specifically test cultural competence education strategies using a virtual community platform.
文化能力是专业实践的期望，但有效地向护理学生教授这一概念具有挑战性。本研究的目的是评估虚拟社区作为一种教学应用，以培养护理学生的文化意识。
本相关性研究从五个护理学士学位项目中的 342 名第一学期学生收集了两份调查，这些学生在一个学期中使用了邻里虚拟社区。进行了描述性和比较分析。
结果表明，虚拟社区的使用可能有助于学生参与者的文化意识。使用频率与文化意识之间存在显著相关性。虚拟社区可能代表了护理教育中文化能力的有用教学应用。需要进一步的研究来专门测试使用虚拟社区平台的文化能力教育策略。
