Understanding the impact of prejudice, cultural competence and burnout on the provider-patient interactions in a multicultural setting

The goals of this paper were, in the first place, to examine the prejudice, cultural competence and burnout of health providers within two different hospital settings: the San Sebastian Hospital of Caserta and the Virgen Macarena Hospital of Seville. Participants in the study were 200 Italian and Spanish nurses, who daily face health challenges posed by the massive influx of immigrant patients.To measure ethnic prejudice the Subtle and Blatant 169Anna Bochino , Manuel Garcia Ramire z and Caterina aterina Arcidiacono Prejudice Scale was used; for Burnout measurement we used the Maslach Burnout Inventory and to examine cultural competence, we have developed a 57-items questionnaire after adapting it and validating it in two different countries: Italy and Spain. The high alpha coefficients obtained in every sub-scale demonstrated the strong internal consistency. We have compared two different socio-political contexts concerning the prejudice, cultural competence and burnout of nurses working in two public hospitals. The two samples of nurses differ regarding three dimensions that we have retained as important factors to influence the quality of care. The analyses showed significant differences between the Italian and the Spanish sample: Italian nurses have greater difficulties and feelings of inadequacy in their work with immigrant users, higher prejudice against immigrants and higher emotional exhaustion than Spanish nurses.