Cultural intelligence and intercultural effectiveness among nurse educators: A mixed-method study

Background: Due to globalisation, the education sector is becoming multi-cultural. It is important for nurse educators to be aware of various cultures and to be able to work efficiently with culturally diverse group of students and colleagues. Objectives: To examine cultural intelligence and inter-cultural effectiveness among nurse educators and as well as to explore their experiences in culturally diverse education settings. Design: A mixed-method approach applying a sequential explanatory design. Results: Nurse educators' cultural intelligence (CQ) and intercultural effectiveness (IE) scores were above the median values, with an overall score of 76.33 (range 23–100) for CQ and 74.64 (range 58–87) for IE respectively. Individual CQ component scores were noted to be high. Although, the cognitive component was in the lower score range, which involves knowledge of norms, practices, values, rules of languages, and rules for expressing non-verbal behaviours. For IE, nurse educators had a lower score with Message Skills, which involved effective interactions conveying messages specific to a particular culture or group. The initial quantitative findings was explained by the narratives of nurse educators reinforcing that acquiring cultural intelligence is a continuous process of knowing and learning through active sharing and that cultural sensitivity overlaps with professional nursing standards. Conclusion: In the presence of culture-related dilemmas, nurse educators resort and are guided by professional standards of cultural awareness, inclusivity and culturally safe practice in nursing. Future research might need to examine how objective measures of cultural intelligence and experience-based evidence from nurse educators contribute to shaping the professional nursing requirements and standards applied in the nursing curriculum.