Linguistic and Cultural Adaptation Needs of Mexican American Nursing Students Related to Multiple-Choice Tests

Abstract

Hispanic nurses represent less than 2% of the current U.S. nursing workforce, despite that approximately 14% of the nation's population is Hispanic. There is an urgent need to correct the gross underrepresentation of Mexican Americans, the largest subgroup among Hispanics, in the U.S. nursing workforce to provide culturally concordant care. One solution is to increase the academic success of Mexican American nursing students with English as a second language through improved linguistic and cultural adaptation to multiple-choice tests. This article will discuss these students' linguistic and cultural adaptation needs related to multiple-choice tests and will also present several intervention strategies and a case study.