AIM: To assess the psychometric properties of the Cultural Capacity Scale Spanish version in Chilean nursing students. BACKGROUND: The increased diversity in healthcare facilities and the current shortage of local nursing workforce in Chile present a significant challenge to the nursing education to train future competent local nurses. To facilitate cultural competence development among Chilean nursing students, it is necessary to regularly assess their cultural competence, which necessitates a culturally adapted valid and reliable tool. METHODS: A convenience sample of 502 Chilean nursing students was surveyed in this cross-sectional study using the culturally adapted scale. Reliability of the instrument was established by internal consistency and stability reliability, while validity was established by content and construct. RESULTS: The Cronbach's α value of the entire scale was 0.95, and the test-retest reliability was 0.85. The Corrected Item-Total Correlations ranged from 0.45 to 0.78. The tool manifested an excellent content and construct validity. The exploratory factor analysis confirmed a single factor of the scale. DISCUSSION: The tool demonstrated evidence of internal consistency, stability reliability, content validity and construct validity. The study provided cross-cultural evidence for the potential application of this scale in Chile and other Spanish-speaking countries. CONCLUSION: The Cultural Capacity Scale Spanish version demonstrated sound psychometric properties for assessing the cultural competence of Chilean nursing students. LIMITATIONS: The sample was restricted to one university, and the tool was only used in Chilean nursing students. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING POLICY: The establishment of the Spanish version of the tool will facilitate accurate and timely monitoring of the cultural competence among Chilean nursing students and other Spanish-speaking nursing students and nurses, which can inform the creation of nursing policies aimed at ensuring cultural competence development.