Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to show how the concept of culturally congruent care can be used to guide provision of transcultural nursing care for people from other cultures in Japan.
Method
Thirty-one articles were analyzed using Rodgers's (2000) concept analysis model. Relevant literature was identified from four databases: CINAHL (1982-2006), MEDLINE (1966-2006), PsycINFO (1806-2006), Ichushi-Web (1983-2006) using the keywords "culturally congruent care" and "culture congruent care". Of the 61 articles deemed relevant, it was possible to obtain only 22. An additional 9 articles were located by manual search. Accordingly, 31 articles were used in the analysis.
Findings
The findings are presented in terms of the Rodgers's model. Five attributes of the concept culturally congruent care were identified: 1) people are the center of care, 2) inclusion of various perspectives on culture, 3) capacity to understand differences, 4) dealing with people flexibly, and 5) harmonizing with changing society. Four antecedents were identified: 1) social factor: multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society; 2) receiver's factor: frustration at lack of reciprocal communication; 3) receiver's and healthcare provider's factor: conflict with sense of values; 4) healthcare provider's factor: lack of focus on humans as humans with their own cultures. Four consequences were identified: 1) greater care satisfaction, 2) improved quality of care, 3) enhanced skills as a professional, and 4) decreased stress and problems. Lastly, one related concept, culturally competent care, was found. Based on these findings, the concept of culturally congruent care, originally identified by Leininger, was defined as "care that harmonizes with a changing society, deals with people's backgrounds flexibly by focusing on people as the center of care, and occurs in a context where care receivers and healthcare providers understand their differences."
Conclusion
Culturally congruent care takes different forms in accordance with how people's cultural background is recognized by healthcare providers. It is noted that the content of culturally congruent care is altered depending on how a culture is understood. The proposed model provides a guide for culturally congruent care in Japan where the number of people from other cultures is increasing. Thus, the model can contribute to the development of nursing education, practice and research in Japan. The concept of culturally congruent care needs to be discussed in order to provide a basis of developing such care in Japan.
