The Relationships Among Personality, Intercultural Communication, and Cultural Self-Efficacy in Nursing Students.

BACKGROUND

The demand for nurses to provide transcultural nursing care is rising. However, little is known about the relationships among the dimensions of nurse personality, intercultural communication, and cultural self-efficacy in the provision of this care.

PURPOSE

The aims of this study were to examine the associations among personality, intercultural communication, and cultural self-efficacy in nursing students and to compare intercultural communication and cultural self-efficacy between first-year and third-year nursing students.

METHOD

One hundred twenty-six Chinese students completed a questionnaire that consisted of three scales that were designed to measure intercultural communication, cultural self-efficacy (cultural concepts, transcultural nursing functions, and cultural knowledge related to South Asians), and personality, respectively.

RESULTS

Intercultural communication correlated positively with the three subscales of personality, agreeableness (r = .22, p < .05), openness (r = .20, p < .05), and conscientiousness (r = .18, p < .05). Self-efficacy in cultural concepts correlated positively with agreeableness (r = .18, p < .05) and intercultural communication (r = .49, p < .01). Self-efficacy in transcultural nursing functions correlated positively with intercultural communication (r = .36, p < .01), agreeableness (r = .31, p < .01), emotional stability (r = .25, p < .01), openness (r = .32, p < .01), extraversion (r = .19, p < .05), and conscientiousness (r = .20, p < .05). Self-efficacy in cultural knowledge related to South Asians correlated positively with agreeableness (r = .20, p < .05) and intercultural communication (r = .27, p < .01). No significant difference was found between first-year and third-year students in terms of intercultural communication, self-efficacy in knowledge of cultural concepts, self-efficacy in the skills needed to perform key transcultural nursing functions, or self-efficacy in the cultural knowledge related to South Asians.

CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Personality assessments should be included in the nursing student recruitment process. Furthermore, nurse educators should focus greater attention on enhancing the cultural self-efficacy and intercultural communication skills of their students.