{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,12]],"date-time":"2026-10-12T17:50:46Z","timestamp":1791827446903,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"10","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,12]],"date-time":"2026-10-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1791763200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS One"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>There is a growing imperative for nurses to navigate multicultural healthcare systems and deliver quality, responsive, safe, person-centred care. Accordingly, undergraduate nursing education must be relevant and innovative to provide undergraduate nursing students with meaningful learning opportunities to develop cultural competence. This study aims to assess undergraduate nursing students\u2019 cultural awareness and examine how these perceptions vary according to socio-demographic characteristics.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted utilising a valid and standardised tool, the cultural awareness scale (CAS). \u201cOne hundred and sixteen\u201d undergraduate nursing students from a higher education institution participated in the study. The Mann\u2013Whitney U test and the Kruskal\u2013Wallis test were used to examine differences in CAS scores across subscales and total scores according to participants\u2019 socio-demographic characteristics.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Overall, the CAS results showed students\u2019 level of cultural awareness was moderately high, with slight variations across the four CAS subscales. Participants born in Ireland had higher scores on all subscales compared to participants born outside Ireland, although these differences were not statistically significant. Participants who identified as White scored highest on General Education Experience (64.54 vs 42.66, U\u2009=\u2009837,\n                      <jats:italic>p\u2009=\u20090.002, r\u2009=\u2009\u22120.29<\/jats:italic>\n                      ), and Total Awareness (63.32 vs 45.86, U\u2009=\u2009939.5,\n                      <jats:italic>p\u2009=\u20090.012, r\u2009=\u2009\u22120.23<\/jats:italic>\n                      ) compared with participants who were categorised as people of colour.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The cultural awareness scores in this study were moderately high among undergraduate nursing students, consistent with previous research using the CAS instrument. The findings suggest an association between ethnic background and perceptions of culturally inclusive educational practices and highlight the need for further research to explore these patterns and inform the development of culturally responsive nursing education.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0359851","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,12]],"date-time":"2026-10-12T17:25:52Z","timestamp":1791825952000},"page":"e0359851","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Assessing cultural awareness and competency in nursing education: A cross-sectional study of undergraduate nursing students in Ireland"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-7209-5305","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Jennifer","family":"Sullivan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"University of Galway","place":["Galway, Ireland"]},{"name":"University College Dublin","place":["Dublin, Ireland"],"department":["School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems, Health Sciences Centre"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4682-9001","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Sahar","family":"Hammoud","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"University College Dublin","place":["Dublin, Ireland"],"department":["School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems, Health Sciences Centre"]},{"name":"University College Dublin","place":["Dublin, Ireland"],"department":["UCD Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, Education and Innovation in Health Systems (UCD IRIS), School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems, Health Sciences Centre"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0359851.ref001","unstructured":"Central Statistics Office. 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