Increasing Graduate Student Awareness of Cultural Competence Through Bias Exploration Related to Diverse Cultural Families

Emphasis by the American Nurses Association and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing regarding the importance of cultural competence in nursing education led to the development of a strategy to address personal bias in graduate nursing students. With the updated Essentials and a change to competency-based education, a need to address culturally congruent practices while increasing awareness of professional organization recommendations exists. Since Domain 2 of the Essentials highlights that culturally competent care is essential to person-centered care, a strategy that enhances knowledge by expanding the definition of culture beyond ethnicity and race was developed.