Cultural sensitivity levels of university students receiving education in health disciplines

Medical and nursing students are expected to be more competent in terms of being acquainted with different cultures and approaching culturally, compared to many other disciplines. This descriptive study was designed to evaluate the cultural sensitivity levels of nursing and medical students and the affecting factors. One hundred and eleven nursing and 164 medical students were included in the study. The data were collected by using a questionnaire questioning the variables that were thought to affect the cultural sensitivity of students and the intercultural sensitivity scale. According to results of the study; it was observed that university students receiving education in the fields of medicine and nursing had good cultural sensitivity levels and those interacting with people from other cultures and speaking a foreign language had significantly higher cultural sensitivity levels (p < 0.05). According to these results, it was thought that it would be useful to develop plannings aimed at increasing the language proficiency in university curriculums and abroad experience opportunities of students, and to design qualitative studies based on interviews and observations aimed at examining the factors affecting the intercultural sensitivity.