Beyond Cultural Competence: Teaching about Race, Gender, Class, and Sexual Orientation

Teaching cultural competence to nursing students has been a goal of nursing education for many years. Culturally competent care has been defined as "sensitive to issues related to culture, race, gender, and sexual orientation." However, teaching cultural competence to nursing students has commonly emphasized cultural or ethnic beliefs, values, and practices, rather than issues of race, gender, class, or sexual orientation. The authors use the theory of "relational positionalty" to help students recognize that everyone has a perspective through which they view the world as "normal"; and that normal as defined by the dominant group can create situations of oppression for others.