Cultural Competence among Health Care Providers at a Teaching Hospital in Ethiopia

Abstract Background Cultural competence in health care means delivering effective, quality care to patients who have diverse beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors. Most health care professionals are not culturally competent in health care provision which compromises quality of care. The aim of this study was to explore cultural competence among health care providers at Saint Paul’s hospital. Methods A cross sectional s study was conducted among 353 health care providers. Data was collected using the Campinha-Bacote’s Cultural awareness assessment tool. A five-point Likert scale was used to measure the respondents’ overall level of cultural competence which included 5 constructs: cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skills, cultural encounters and cultural desire. Data was analyzed using Stata Statistical Software Re. The score was classified as culturally incompetent (25–50 points), culturally aware (51–74 points), culturally competent (75–90 points) and culturally proficient (91–100 points). Ethical clearance was obtained from the IRB of the hospital and written consent was obtained from the study participants. Results The Campinha-Bacote’s cultural awareness assessment tool had an acceptable internal consistency with the calculated Chronbach’s α of 0.82. The overall cultural competence mean (SD) score was 67(9.3) among all health care professionals. Only 16% of the health care providers were culturally competent. Among the cultural competence constructs, the highest mean scores were obtained for cultural desire (15.7) followed by cultural encounter (13.2), cultural awareness (13.1). Male, those with higher incomes and midwives were found to have better cultural competence scores. Conclusion The Campinha-Bacote’s tool had a good internal consistency and can be utilized for assessment of cultural competence in a low income countries context. The overall cultural competence score among the health care professionals was low. Hence the hospital needs to devise strategies to improve cultural competence of its health care providers.