• Anita Noble, Kay Engelhardt, Mona Newsome-Wicks, and Anna C Woloski-Wruble.
• Henrietta Szold Hadassah Hebrew University, School of Nursing, Jerusalem, Israel. anoble@hadassah.org.il
• J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs. 2009 Sep 1; 38 (5): 544-55.

ObjectiveTo examine nurse-midwives' general cultural competence and ethnic attitudes toward Jewish couples of varying degrees of religious identification during the birth process and the relationship between background data, ethnic attitudes, and cultural competence.DesignDescriptive, correlational study.SettingAcademic tertiary care health facility.ParticipantsThirty staff nurse-midwives employed at a university hospital in Israel.MethodsParticipants completed Campinha-Bacote's Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence among Healthcare Professionals-Revised, Ethnic Attitude Scale-Adapted, and a midwifery demographic survey.ResultsGeneral cultural competence scores were consistent with previous studies of nurses who did not receive formal cultural education. Midwives' ethnic attitude differed significantly among Secular, Traditional, Religious, and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish patient scenarios. The most positive attitudes and lowest bias scores occurred for midwives when the patient scenarios were similar to or congruent with their religious identification.ConclusionsThe results of this study indicate a need to establish educational and practice content with clinical experiences to improve midwives' cultural competence and ethnic attitudes toward women and their families with dissimilar cultural backgrounds. These results have global implications for nursing/midwifery care considering patients' varying degrees of religious adherence.

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