Pediatricians and Pediatric Nurses in the Delivery of Culturally Competent Care: A Scoping Literature Review to Investigate Progress and Issues around Culturally Diverse Care in Pediatrics

Abstract

The demographics in the United States are rapidly changing. In 2012, 47.2% of the
children who lived in the United Stated were of color. However, three out of four physicians
identified themselves as White non-Hispanic and approximately 83% of nurses are White, non-
Hispanic. The changing demographics and increasing diversity of the population has an impact
on care and quality of care being delivered by pediatric healthcare providers to children and
their families. In 2005, The Office of Minority Health reported that the main ingredient in
closing the gap in health care disparities is cultural competency. This scoping literature review
investigated how pediatricians and pediatric nurses were progressing with their delivery of
culturally competent care. The studies in the review revealed that the delivery of culturally
competent care by pediatric health care providers has been a slow and difficult process and that
there are identified areas of improvement. Pediatricians, pediatric nurses, other pediatric health
care providers and families whose children received health care services from these providers
were participants in the studies reviewed. Health care providers reported that more cultural
competence training and education was necessary. Families in several studies identified communication/
linguistics and the provider’s ability to be more open and aware as areas where
more cultural education and training are needed.