Enhancing cultural competencies of advanced practice nurses: health care challenges in the twenty-first century

Shifting population demographics will have a major impact on the practice of advanced practice nurses (APNs). The ethnic composition of people in this country is becoming increasingly diverse. Massachusetts and, in particular, the city of Worcester is also experiencing changes in the diversity of its population. These trends testify to the great need for APNs who are sensitive to and competent to care for culturally diverse populations. To address these changes, specific curricula enhancements focused on ethnically diverse populations were implemented for the nurse practitioner specialties at the Graduate School of Nursing (GSN), University of Massachusetts Worcester. The processes used for this project included visiting community and clinical sites, identifying key curricular components, and evaluating existing didactic and clinical learning experiences. The GSN faculty developed a systematic plan for integrating these components into the graduate nursing core, advanced practice core, and specialty courses of the respective curricula. A major outcome of this project was the enhanced preparation of APN students to meet the multifaceted needs of ethnically diverse patients, families, and communities.