Using Design Thinking to Develop a Tool for Strengthening Nurses' Cultural Competence: Lessons learned

G. Duran-Kiraç; R. Uittenbroek; H. van Hout; M. I. Broese van Groenou

doi:10.1177/10436596251370604

Using Design Thinking to Develop a Tool for Strengthening Nurses' Cultural Competence: Lessons learned

G. Duran-Kiraç^*, R. Uittenbroek, H. van Hout, M. I. Broese van Groenou

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Nurses working in dementia care lack cultural competence to improve access to health care for ethnic minority persons. This study aimed to develop a tool to strengthen nurses' cultural competence, using a Design Thinking approach in the Netherlands.

METHOD: This qualitative participatory study followed five Design Thinking phases: empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. Data were collected during co-creation sessions with a Design Team consisting of nurses, an informal caregiver, researchers and students.

RESULTS: The Design Team ( n = 7) formulated the problem statement: "It is difficult to map all involved in the care for the person with dementia, and to be able to ask right questions." In response, the Good Conversation Method was developed, including a genogram to visualize the care network and conversation cards to explore cultural and religious identity.

DISCUSSION: Design Thinking lessons included the importance of including all stakeholders, managing differing perspectives, and allowing time for iterative development.

Original language	English
Number of pages	10
Journal	Journal of Transcultural Nursing
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/10436596251370604
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 5 Oct 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), Doctoral Grant for Teachers (grant number 023.014.056).

Funders	Funder number
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	023.014.056

Keywords

cultural competence
design method(s)
design thinking
migrants
nurses

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Using Design Thinking to Develop a Tool for Strengthening Nurses' Cultural Competence: Lessons learned

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