Transcultural Curriculum Content in Practical Nursing Programs

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which practical nursing programs incorporate the concepts of transcultural nursing in their program philosophy statements and conceptual frameworks. Practical nursing programs located in California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Texas were selected for study due to the diversity of the states’ populations as border or immigrant entry states. An equal number of National League for Nursing (_NLN) accredited and non-accredited programs were studied in each of the selected states, with a total sample of 38 programs included in the study. Nineteen programs (50%) responded to the survey. The majority of responses came from NLN accredited programs (63%), few non-accredited programs (36%) responded to the survey. Four programs, two accredited and two non-accredited, responded but chose not to participate. Results indicate that most NLN accredited programs include aspects of cultural diversity in their curriculum as evidenced by their philosophy statements and conceptual frameworks. However, this varied to a great degree. Methods by which content related to cultural diversity is included in practical/vocational nursing curricula are presented