The Czech Version of the Purnell’s Model for Cultural Competence

Abstract

Introduction: The motive of this work was to create standardized Czech version of the Purnell Model for Cultural Competence which could help non-medical healthcare personnel in providing care to clients from different cultural backgrounds. Objective: The aim was to create a standardized Czech version of the Purnell Model for Cultural Competence and to provide a description of the back translation methodology. Method: After obtaining consent from the author of the Model for Cultural Competence, Larry Purnell, a translation to the Czech language from the original version in English was carried out by experts from the fields of nursing and midwifery, healthcare English and by linguist. Back translation was carried out by a native speaker from the United States who has lived in the Czech Republic for fifteen years. The native speaker did not know the original version. Subsequently, his version was compared with the original version. Significantly different terms were discussed and subsequently incorporated into the final Czech version. Results: Altogether, 89 terms were translated. Absolute agreement occurred in 37 (41.6%) cases. In eight cases (9%), the translated terms were significantly different, but agreeing on the resulting expression was seamless. In three cases (3.37%), the different Czech variants also differed significantly and the translation did not correspond to the context. Using the Czech and English interpreting vocabulary linguists, the resulting expressions were reworked. There were synonyms in 38 (42.7%) expressions, singular and plural differences in three translated terms (3.4%). All the differences that appeared in translations were probably due to the different active vocabulary of the individual translators, and in such cases the linguist was chosen as the variant that most corresponds to the original meaning and which is most acceptable for the stylistic and meaningful aspects of the Czech language. Conclusion: The Model for Cultural Competence is a tool for collecting data from the members of varying cultures from all regions of the world and is widely used by healthcare providers as well as for instance by teachers, research workers and sociologists. The Model for Cultural Competence has been translated into Czech language and brought closer to the wider professional public. It will be subject to further verification under a more extensive study.