The asynchronous Lilly 2021 presentation I watched tonight was by Joan Humphrey from Penn State Beyond and entitled “Competence: Cultivating Cultural Humility in Nursing Education.” Humphrey starting by reviewing demographic data from nursing education and challenges that are systemic in nature. Wicked problems were defined by Humphrey as complex issues that could be social or cultural and difficult to explain and impossible to inherently solve. How do we differentiate cultural competence from cultural humility was the next question that Humphrey addressed. Humphrey stated that cultural humility is a lifelong process that requires critique, self-reflection supportive interactions, openness, self-awareness, and egoless. This explanation of cultural humility and comparison to a more checklist approach often used for cultural competence was helpful in emphasizing the continuous process of learning. Humphrey shared several nursing initiatives aimed at diversification and social justice. Multicultural communication and social justice have become important components for nursing education, and Humphrey summarized some of the social justice guidelines for nursing education. It was encouraging to learn from Humphrey that the social determinants of health and core values such as human dignity, altruism, and integrity are fundamental to nursing. One of the session objectives was to generate solutions and strategies. Humphrey shared pedagogical strategies with the goal of being more accepting in the classroom:
- Code switching. Humphrey included “smuggling vernacular into the classroom”
- Appreciative inquiry.
- Modeling beyond the classroom.
- Open-ended problem solving to allow more than one “right” viewpoint.
- Critical literacy: broad-based text review to form a critical stance.
- Engagement strategies that maintain and refine cultural humility.
Humphrey explained how the pandemic has taught us to be more flexible, and with open-ended problem solving there is no wrong and write. Asking open-ended questions that don’t assume a single correct answer and encourage students to think and respond creatively without the fear of giving the “wrong answer.” Nursing students, staff, administrators, and faculty need to “maintain & refine their practice of cultural humility.” Before ending, Humphrey stated that “we can all really change the future.” We had a JEDI meeting today and talked about a wicked problem we face. I think it is important to maintain the positivity and motivation to continue working toward improving our interactions and community even when we know that what we are doing may not be ideal… we should always strive for improvement and think about better ways of engaging all in the journey towards cultural humility.
