Cultural awareness scale: Psychometric properties of the Turkish version

BackgroundCultural competence, a relatively new concept in the world of healthcare professionals, has garnered an increasing global attention over the last 20 years. An accurate assessment of baseline knowledge, skills, attitudes, strengths, and limitations of the students in delivering culturally congruent nursing care appears to be a key component in designing teaching strategies.AimThe current study aimed to analyze the psychometric properties of the Turkish language version of the Cultural Awareness Scale and to determine any possible similarities between the compositions of the Turkish version and the original scale.MethodsThis methodological study included a sample size of 197 undergraduate nursing students. The research data were collected using a sociodemographic form and the Turkish language version of the Cultural Awareness Scale, which contains 36 items designed to address five different factors using a 7-point Likert response format.FindingsThe Turkish language version of the scale comprised 36 items under four different subscales. The scale was found highly reliable, with an internal consistency estimate of reliability at 0.897 for the total scale, which ranged from 0.751 to 0.868 for the subscales. The item-total correlation test showed that there was a significant correlation between each item and the remaining items, with correlation coefficient values ranging from 0.147 to 0.647.ConclusionsThe results of the analyses showed that the Turkish language version of the Cultural Awareness Scale was a highly valid and reliable instrument; therefore, it might prove a valuable asset for use in various healthcare disciplines.