Teaching cultural competence using an exemplar from literary journalism

Fadiman's work of literary journalism, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, was used as a case study to teach transcultural and other nursing concepts to undergraduate nursing students. Campinha-Bacote's model of cultural competence was used to organize transcultural nursing concepts...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of nursing education 2004-06, Vol.43 (6), p.253-259
Main Author: Anderson, Kathryn L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Case Studies
Core curriculum
Course Content
Critical thinking
Cultural anthropology
Cultural Diversity
Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate - methods
Educational Measurement
Female
Humans
Learning
Low income groups
Male
Mexican Americans
Middle Aged
Nurses
Nursing
Nursing care
Nursing education
Nursing Research
Nursing Students
Psychiatric-mental health nursing
Public housing
Teaching Materials
Teaching Methods
Theory
Transcultural Nursing - education
Undergraduate Study
Washington
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Summary:Fadiman's work of literary journalism, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, was used as a case study to teach transcultural and other nursing concepts to undergraduate nursing students. Campinha-Bacote's model of cultural competence was used to organize transcultural nursing concepts in the course. Before and after the course, students completed assessments consisting of two cultural attitude questionnaires and a paper describing a personal experience with adherence and failure to adhere by a Mexican American client. After reading Fadiman's book and completing several short writing assignments examining key course concepts, student scores on the questionnaires were mostly unchanged. However, students demonstrated growth in cultural awareness and skill in their "after" papers. Results suggest that valid, reliable tools are needed to detect changes in cultural competence. Qualitative data suggest that students can begin the process of becoming culturally competent through the creative use of literature in nursing education.
ISSN:0148-4834
1938-2421
DOI:10.3928/01484834-20040601-04