Developing Cultural Competence in the Baccalaureate Nursing Student: A Population-Based Project with the Hutterites

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to articulate the process of educating baccalaureate students to apply culturally competent, population-based nursing care to the Hutterites. The Hutterites are a German dialect-speaking, ethnoreligious population. Campinha-Bacote’s culturally competent model guided the student learning process. Groups of students developed culture-specific, population-based assessment models to identify the health-related needs of the Hutterites. One example of a Hutterite health assessment model that was derived from Dever’s epidemiologic model and Purnell and Paulanka’s model for cultural competence is presented. Priority health needs of Hutterite colonies are described, and examples of health programs are given. Recommendations for working with the Hutterite population as part of an undergraduate public health nursing course are put forth. The culturally congruent process of teaching and learning for nursing students can be applied to other health-related professions and adapted to other cultural contexts.