Cultural Sensitivity in Nursing: Making a World Out of Difference

Abstract

This thesis examines the meanings that nurses attach to the concept of “cultural sensitivity”. The findings are drawn from an extensive review of nursing's formal discourse (the nursing literature) and nurses' informal discourse (indepth interviews with 31 nurses practising in Southern Ontario). An analysis of this discourse shows that there are different emphases in the formal and informal discourse, and considerable variability between nurses in how cultural sensitivity is understood. The two general orientations identified are control and humanism. A control orientation regards cultural sensitivity as a tool for increasing the efficiency of nursing care. A humanist orientation involves viewing cultural sensitivity as a process of personal growth that occurs between the nurse and client. The formal discourse in nursing tends to emphasize the control orientation while the informal discourse tends to give the humanist perspective more prominence. The thesis concludes by suggesting that efforts to promote cultural sensitivity will continue to be problematic so long as these differences in how the concept is understood are overlooked.