Strategies for nursing care of critically ill multicultural patients: a scoping review

Background: In society, people live in a social reality where multiculturalism is an increasingly relevant and prevalent topic in their contexts. Facing this, caring for multicultural patients in an emergency service or intensive care unit setting requires a high level of cultural competence due to the complexity, vulnerability of the patient, rapid changes in hemodynamic status, involvement of the family, their informational needs. Objective: To map the strategies for nursing care of critically ill multicultural patients. Method: A Scoping Review was conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institute's recommendations, with the research question: What are the strategies for nursing care of critically ill multicultural patients? The study was guided by PRISMA. The research was conducted through the EBSCOHost platform, SciELO, Portugal's Open Access Scientific Repository, the Virtual Health Library and a search in grey literature. This was achieved by combining the descriptors DECS/MESH: cultural competence; critical care; emergency room; intensive care; and natural words: cultural care; nurs* interventions; nurs* strategies; within the time frame from 2012 to 2024. The study screening was performed by three independent reviewers through the reading of titles, abstracts and full texts, applying exclusion criteria. The study results were then subjected to content analysis, from which categories emerged. Results: The selected articles highlight various strategies that contribute to the improvement of nursing care for critically ill multicultural patients, focusing on care practice and cultural diversity training for both nurses and nursing students. Conclusion: Nurses with cultural competence possess more knowledge and strategies to provide tailored care for multicultural critically ill patients, thereby enhancing the quality of care delivered and contributing to the humanization of healthcare. Relevance to Clinical Practice: Nurses need to have knowledge of existing strategies for caring for multicultural critically ill patients. Patient or Public Contribution: No direct patient or public contribution to the review.