BACKGROUND

Cultural competence is a key component of culturally congruent nursing care. In order to reduce healthcare inequalities and to identify potentials for improvement in nursing practice, researchers need to be able to assess cultural competence properly. Although many instruments for the assessment of cultural competence have been developed, their measurement properties have not yet been reviewed systematically. Such an overview of existing instruments, however, would allow researchers to identify the most valid and reliable instrument for nursing practice.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of conducting this review is to identify and critically appraise the psychometric properties of instruments used to measure the cultural competence of nurses.

METHODS

A systematic literature search was performed in November 2019 in the following electronic databases: Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Embase, PsycINFO and PubMed. Studies that were conducted to assess any measurement property of instruments used to measure the cultural competence of nurses were included. Two reviewers independently screened the articles and assessed the risk of bias using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments checklist. The quality of included instruments was assessed on the basis of the updated criteria for good measurement properties, and the quality of the summarised results was graded based on the principles of Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation.

RESULTS

In total, 44 studies describing 21 instruments were included in this study. We found that most instruments were tested for at least some forms of validity, but seldom for reliability. The quality of the psychometric properties was evaluated using the criteria for good measurement properties for the following: content validity, structural validity, internal consistency, reliability, measurement error and construct validity. No studies were found in which cross-cultural validity, criterion validity, or the responsiveness of the included instruments were evaluated. The Transcultural Self-Efficacy Tool, the Cultural Competence Assessment, and the Cultural Competence Health Practitioner Assessment showed sufficient levels of quality for psychometric properties and can be recommended for the assessment of cultural competence in nurses.

CONCLUSION

Given the broad availability of self-administered instruments to assess cultural competence, the development of new instrument is not recommended. A particular need was identified to conduct further psychometric evaluation studies on existing instruments and to adapt them accordingly, and especially on less frequently evaluated properties, such as reliability, measurement error and responsiveness.