ABSTRACT
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.