| dc.description.abstract | This disquisitional aimed to improve the cultural education of nurse practitioner's (NP's) related to female refugee populations. The ultimate goal was to improve health care outcomes and decrease disparities for refugee women by focusing on increasing cultural understanding, enhancing education, and providing a framework which NP's can utilize in daily practice. An online educational module was created and offered on the American Association of Nurse Practitioners Continuing Education website. Traditional cultural health care practices for the top 10 refugee populations in the United States in 2011 were compiled, compared with current cultural competence and awareness of primary care providers and formulated into an educational module. A 1.25 hour long PowerPoint accompanied by audio, pretest, posttest, and evaluation were created for members of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Participants were able to receive 1.25 continuing education units upon completion of the entire module and evaluation. Purposes from the educational module evaluation questions included: (a) perceived educational preparation during graduate education and at the postgraduate level, and (b) the perceived effectiveness of the educational method. Both purposes were supported through NP evaluation responses (n=85). There was a lack of graduate education on cultural awareness and implementation into practice found in literature. The evaluation results from this project conflicted with the literature by demonstrating 90% of participants felt adequately prepared during graduate education. The majority (94%) of respondents specified that the module "completely" or "quite a bit" promoted learning for each participant free of commercial bias. Educational modules using PowerPoint with audio appeared to be an acceptable educational strategy for NPs regarding cultural awareness based on survey evaluation data. As the culture of the patient population within the United States continues to evolve and change, it is of vital importance that NPs stay up to date on current practice and treatment changes that are culturally appropriate and sensitive. An educational framework to maintain cultural awareness, enhance understanding, and increase communication becomes a forefront issue. In order to assist with the coordination of care in the hopes to diminish health care related disparities, continued research is needed in the delivery of educational modules. | en_US |
