Inclusion of cultural competence and racial awareness in nursing education: An exploration of the nurse educator role

Contemporary global issues such as the war in Ukraine, COVID-19, and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement have catapulted nurse education to a crucial juncture. Consequently, there is now an urgent opportunity and need to reflect and consider how nurse educators are effectively preparing nursing students to be culturally competent and racially aware.
This paper discusses how nurse educators can remain committed to developing cultural competence and racial awareness among nursing students. Cultural competence in nursing is the ability to provide holistic care that is non-judgmental and takes into consideration patients' diversity i.e. their backgrounds, values, belief systems and behaviours and inclusive of any protected characteristics. It is concerned with valuing differences and other world views, as well as tailoring care delivery to meet the patients' social, cultural and linguistic needs (Mitchell-Brown, 2020). In essence, cultural competence sits on the tenets of equity, diversity and inclusion.