Nurses are Key to Bridging the Gap of Cultural Competency in Care
The combined forces of an older and more ethnically and racially diverse society will have a profound impact on the United States in the coming years. By the year 2030, the number of persons 65 and older is expected to more than double to 66 million, or one in every five Americans. Nurses are on the front lines of patient care and are often the first professionals that patients encounter. It is important that cultural competence is viewed as nursing competence, meaning that nurses have the capacity to be equally therapeutic with older adult patients from any social context or cultural background.