Resources in Transcultural Nursing: A Library Orientation Program for Nursing Students

Journal of Multicultural Nursing & Health, Summer 2005 by Xiao, Judy

The article describes a creative library orientation program designed by the librarian and nursing faculty to introduce students to essential resources and necessary skills to research topics in transcultural nursing. The program employs a combination of face-to-face library instruction and a Web site using the Blackboard course management system. The Web site, Resources in Transcultural Nursing, contains tutorials, databases, bibliography of books and articles, and Web sites that can help students complete their cultural research assignment, and enhance their cultural competence. The article includes a detailed description of the orientation program so other faculty/librarians could implement the program. The author describes the Web site design for Resources in Transcultural Nursing and outlines its potential benefits, and also summarizes effectiveness of the program and its outcomes based on student evaluation.

KEY WORDS: Bibliographic Instruction/Nursing Students; Computer-Assisted Instruction; Course Management System/Blackboard; Database Searching; Transcultural Nursing/Bibliography.

In their article "Cultural Discovery: An Innovative Philosophy for Creative Learning Activities", Jeffreys and O'Donnell (1997) described a "philosophical approach for integrating general transcultural nursing concepts and skills within a first semester associate degree nursing course" (p.17). One of the components of this "creative learner-centered approach, called Cultural Discovery" was a collaborative library introductory program for the students (Jeffreys & O'Donnell). This collaborative library introductory program introduced students to available resources and skills necessary for cultural research, and helped increase students' awareness of the importance of culture in nursing care. Articles describing such orientation programs are absent from the nursing literature.

The purpose of this article is to describe a new innovative library orientation program for beginning nursing students. The library orientation program had two major components: a one-hour library instruction in a computer lab, and a Resources in Transcultural Nursing Web site. A description of the program design process, Web site development, program implementation, evaluation, and future plans will be presented. Case examples will highlight key features of the program and the Resources in Transcultural Nursing Web site.

PREPARATION

Program design and preparation began with collaboration with nursing course faculty. The librarian and nursing course faculty met to discuss plans for the library orientation program. Program objectives, class size, timing of instruction, and program components were discussed and agreed upon. A copy of the student research paper assignment and other student and course information served as guide for program design. As our goal was to introduce students to available resources and skills necessary for cultural research, and to help them discover the importance of culturally congruent nursing care, we decided that a one-hour classroom instruction in a computer lab, complemented with a Resources in Transcultural Nursing Web site would best help the students and meet our program objectives. The following components were planned for the library orientation program:

* Library databases available to search for transcultural information, with major emphasis on CINAHL.

* Sample of how to search CINAHL on a select cultural topic by the librarian.

* Opportunity for students to use hands-on experience to conduct a CINAHL search on the culture and health of an ethnic group of his or her choice.

* Methods of obtaining journal articles selected from CINAHL search.

* Use of cultural books and related materials placed on reserve at the library by nursing course faculty.

* Use of reliable, scholarly Internet resources in transcultural nursing.

* Introduction to the Resources in Transcultural Nursing Web site.

* Off-campus access to library's electronic resources

In preparation for the library orientation program content, the librarian researched the current scholarly literature for articles on transcultural resources. A systematic search in three research databases CINAHL, Health Source (Nursing/Academic Edition), and Medline found some good articles. It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss all literature; select areas will be highlighted. One such article described the development of a transcultural Web site in a large medical center to give doctors and nurses immediate, around-the-clock access to various types of transcultural information that could help them in providing culturally competent care (De Ruiter and Larsen, 2002). Among the various types of resources discussed, the list of selected transcultural Web sites was especially useful. The students could use, for example, the CIA World Factbook (http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/) for general information about every country in the world. Sobralske (2002) listed several Internet sites for transcultural health questions. One could find information on the cultural beliefs and religion of Muslims, profiles of various ethnic and cultural groups, and tips for improving communication and assessment of ethnically and culturally diverse patients. Gomez (2004) presented Web sites and organizations that could help enhance nurses' cultural competence, including the Transcultural Nursing Society's Web site (www.tcns.org), and the cultural diversity Web site (http://www.culturediversity.org).