Beyond transculturalism: Critiques of cultural education in nursing

New and innovative educational approaches are needed to prepare a workforce that responds to diverse needs of people from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, languages, and worldviews. Despite some movement toward standardization of cultural curricular content, there remains a lack of consensus regarding pedagogical approaches to cultural education in nursing. An increasing number of nurse scholars have identified significant limitations in the process of cultural education in nursing and transcultural nursing theory. These critiques reflect a schism in the discipline regarding foundational theoretical perspectives and conceptualizations of culturally competent health care. This article offers a synthesis of transcultural nursing critiques that have appeared in the nursing literature over the past decade and explicates the philosophical tensions that underlie the varying pedagogical approaches to cultural education in nursing.