A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of global health competency improvement programs on nurses and nursing students

Abstract

Aims To identify trends in global health competency improvement programs for nurses and to verify their effects. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources Articles published from 2000-2017 in Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, and ProQuest and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature database, Cochrane Library, Research Information Sharing Service, DataBase Periodical Information Academic, Korean Studies Information Service System, and National Assembly Library. Review methods Cochrane methods were used to conduct a systematic review, meta-analysis, and sensitivity analysis. Results Nineteen studies were reviewed. Among them, 12 studies were used for the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis indicated that global health competency improvement programs affected multicultural self-efficacy and cultural competence. Conclusion The findings can be used as the basis for global health competency improvement programs. More studies are needed to clarify their effectiveness. Impact Global health competency improvement programs can be beneficial to improve cultural competence and multicultural self-efficacy for nurses and nursing students.