CSI Offers Nursing Certificate in Cultural Competence, First in the Nation

In an effort to address the critical need for cultural competence in the health care profession, the College of Staten Island’s Department of Nursing will launch a new Advanced Certificate in Cultural Competence program this fall, the first certificate program of its kind in the nation.

The program is the brainchild of Marianne Jeffreys, Professor of Nursing at CSI, who points out the importance of being culturally competent in the health care field. “We have an increasingly diverse population. With increased globalization and immigration throughout the world, people are moving more rapidly and cultures are changing. Nurses and health care professionals are also becoming much more diverse, so we really need to do this to enhance health care outcomes.”

“I applaud and fully endorse CSI’s Advanced Certificate in Cultural Competence. This program has it all: culturally specific action plans across diverse practice settings for educators, practitioners, managers, and researchers,” said Larry Purnell, a nursing professor with the University of Delaware. “Graduates of [CSI’s] program will have readily available knowledge and skill that will enhance their cultural competence as well as the skills necessary to conduct culturally competent education and research and work more effectively with culturally diverse staff.”

The Website www.culturediversity.org notes that to be “culturally competent the nurse needs to understand his/her own world views and those of the patient, while avoiding stereotyping and misapplication of scientific knowledge. Cultural competence is obtaining cultural information and then applying that knowledge.”

Jeffreys adds that cultural competence is also valuable as health care professionals relate to one another, as well as with their patients.

The program is open to graduate and post-graduate nursing students. For more information, visit www.csi.cuny.edu/nursing or call the Nursing Department at 718.982.3823.