journal of Advanced Nursing, 1992,17,149-157 Towards the goal of providing culturally sensitive care: principles upon which to build nursing curricula M Judith Lynam RN MSN Assistant Professor, The School of Nursing. The University of Bntish Columbia, T 206-2211 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, Bntish Columbia V6T2B5, Canada Accepted for publicahon 9 July 1991 LYNAM M J (1992) Journal of Advanced Nursmg 17,149-157 Towards the goal of providing culturally sensitive care: principles upon which to build nursing curricula Nursing has, in recent years, strongly argued that an individual's culture influences how illness events are perceived and managed Nursing has also identified the need for nurses to provide culturally sensitive care The literature, however, provides very limited direction for the integration of such concepts into nursing curricula In this paper, the author presents a theoretical perspective on culture that addresses cultural behefs and values but also extends to consider canng and programmes of care delivery within the broader soaal context Using examples from the hterature, the author identifies knowledge and skills deemed essential if nurses are to be capable of working effectively with individual clients and at the level of programme design and delivery PROFESSIONAL ROLES French, a substantial number of Canada's population speak , , ,, languages other than these two (Canada Ministry of State It micht be said that professional roles are invented by soaety ,..,, „ , •,-. • ^^<,r>\ '^ , ,, n , I J J I k lu for Multiculturahsm and Citizenship 1989) to supply the services that can be rendered only by those "^ with speaahzed knowledge Society gives certam nghts and ^^Y ^ ^^.s century the majonty of uramgrants were pnvileges to these roles but, in turn, it exacts certain from Europe whereas more recently significant numbers of obkgations immigrants are from Asia, and Central and Latin Amenca (Chnstman 1987) Nurses m Canada, like those of most other countnes, recognize the need to be prepared to respond to the unique needs of all the members of this multicultural society One obligation of the nursmg profession can be seen as the (Canada Ministry of State for Multiculturalism and education of practitioners who are able to provide nursmg Citizenship 1987) care that is meanmgful for, and sensitive to the needs of. One response to the need to understand more fully dients of all cultures clients of different cultures m Canada and other countnes is Canada, like many countnes m the Western world, is a the emergence of a vanety of literature that has focused country where immigration has served as the major means upon topics related to cross-cultural or transcultural for increasing the peculation m order to foster economic nursmg A review of the literature also reveals a range m growth Besides the native people, all Canadiarw can trace approaches withm the papers Many papers, for example, their family roots to other regions of the world The pat- focus upon the health behefs, traditions and practices of a terns and trends of immigration have resulted m the forma- particular cultural or ethruc group (Lome 1985) while tiMi of a vanety of ethnic communities as well as the devel- others step outside the 'culhire specific' focus and instead opment of a picture of Canada as a multicultural soaety identify and examine concepts common to people from While the country has two ofi&aal languages, English and many cultures (Lipson & Meleis 1985, Waxler-Momson 149