Community Strategies Essay

Cultural competence is the ability to interact well with people of different cultural backgrounds (Rundle, 2002). It provides the best ways of meeting the needs of diverse patient population which is always on the increase, as well as ways of effectively advocating for them. This means that cultural competence has the benefit of enabling nurses to deliver services that respect and effectively respond to health beliefs and practice needs of diverse patients. Through the process of globalization, nurses are moving to places of nursing shortage to offer their knowledge and skills beyond their home

Utilizing the culture care theory, nurses become knowledgeable of what constitutes health in understanding the meanings and symbols of the ways of culture. Care, caring knowledge, and actions are core components that will ensure the health or wellbeing of people in various cultures. Kaakinen et al (2015) asserts that clients may not be prone to nurse’s suggestions for health promotion because of cultural conflicts with the client’s belief and value systems.

The audience intended for this paper are mothers that have a desire to breastfeed, employers, clinicians, breastfeeding advocacy groups and federal and state legislators involved in policy change.

Cultural competence in nursing is imperative for effective patient care. A nurse must know his or her own values and beliefs as well as knowing about a patient cultural practices in relation to healthcare. Cultural competence is defined by some as: “the learned, shared and transmitted values, beliefs, norms and lifeways of a particular group that guides their thinking, decisions and actions.” Also it is noted that an important change to this definition is “the recognition of the dynamic,

This paper will conduct a community assessment of Marion County, Indiana. Marion County is located in the heart of Indianapolis, which is the capital of the state of Indiana. Marion County was created April 1, 1822 and was formed from Delaware New Purchase. It was named after General Frances Marion from South Carolina in the Revolutionary War period. This assessment will address the health needs and risks of Marion County through the use of the WGU assessment forms identifying the population’s economic status, neighborhood and community safety inventory, cultural assessment, and the disaster assessment and planning guide.

The term culture is defined as “the thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of racial, ethnic, religious, or social groups” (Potter & Perry, 2013). With the increase of culturally diverse populations in the United States, it is important for nurses to practice cultural competence. Cultural competence is the ability to acquire specific behaviors, skills, attitudes, and policies in a system that permits “effective work in a cross-cultural setting” (OMH, 2013). Being culturally competent is essential because nurses who acknowledges and respects a patient’s health beliefs and practices are more likely to have positive health outcomes (OMH, 2012). Every culture has certain views and attitudes concerning

The main ideas that Lisa Bourque Bearskin is stating in this article is that nurses need to be more sensitive to cultural care. They need to be aware of the issues in healthcare and strive to remove any barriers for certain groups, such as the first nations, and they need to disrupt any unequal relations in the social, political and historical aspect of healthcare. The way this can be done is by shifting their thoughts from cultural competence to cultural safety by way of relational ethics. Cultural competence is explained as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that nurses need to use to care for cultural differences. Another framework described cultural competence as going through the stages of cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skill, cultural encounter, and cultural desire. Cultural competency works very well when making policies in an agency but this view fosters a view of culture that does not encourage nurses to ask questions. (Bearskin, 2011) Cultural Competence causes different cultures to be put in a box, which cannot be done because cultures are constantly changing and every person’s culture is different. Culture is individual. Lisa Bourque Bearskin goes on to say that cultural safety is what nurses should use for ethical practice. In cultural safety, a nurse must strive to improve health care and its access for all people, while recognizing that there are many different cultures that have a right to be recognized. Bourque

I have learned that it is important that educators  and health providers be trained on cultural competency to understand the population they are serving. Marks, Sims, and Osher (King, Sims, & Osher, n.d.) define cultural competency  as a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enables that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross–cultural situations" ( as cited in Cross et al., 1989; Isaacs & Benjamin, 1991). Health providers and educators should investigate demographic patterns or trends in the place where they live and work. This brings awareness of the types of cultures that they might come across when they are working with people. Organizations should integrate and implement policies that promote the value of  diversity, self-assessment, manage the dynamics of difference, acquire and institutionalize cultural knowledge, and adapt to diversity and the cultural contexts of communities they serve (Georgetown  University, 2004). Georgetown University (2004) also stresses that culture competency grows gradually and is always open for improvement.

It should be noted that these services vary according to population needs, with some studies even indicating that services vary based on the racial background of the participants (Evans, Labbok, & Abrahams 2011). This should be a cause for concern, and discrepancies in services provided must be avoided to limit further disparities. Data from the Centers for Disease Control (2016) found that in 2010, the rates for breastfeeding initiation was 74% for Native American women, which was lower than other groups. In order to better combat breastfeeding disparities, the WIC program continues to tailor their breastfeeding support services to achieve the Healthy People 2020 goals by increasing the number of trained staff, holding community involvement sessions, and constructing additional educational components.

To be a successful culturally competent nurse, nurses should assume attitudes to promote transcultural care. Nurses need to be aware of their patient’s cultural differences - taking time to understand and value patient’s cultural needs and perspectives. Nurses should show respect and concern for patients. Nurses should also be empathic with their patients.

“Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul motivated by love.”

According to Healthy People 2020 a goal of theirs is to “increase immunization rates and reduce preventable infections.” The influenza virus is one of these preventable infections, which can cause serious harm to patients. The influenza virus is known as the “flu.” Everyone in his or her life has had some experience with the flu, whether that is himself or herself or a family member. What if there was a way to ensure people from contracting a strain of the influenza virus? Well, thanks to technology and medical research there is.

Many people do not care about where they come from. Many people are selfish with their time and effort, but not me I do care about where I came from and I devote most of my time and effort to make many people happy. I try my hardest to do the right thing and to give back when I know I should. Giving back to my community is an important thing to me. People should care and protect about their communities. Three reasons why giving back to my community is important to me is because my community has done so much for me, I take so much pride in where I am from, and because I want people to see how wonderful my community is.

We bring them up a lot – our Community Impact Partners. I imagine a lot of people don’t fully understand what that entails, and why they are important to our community. So, here’s a behind the scenes look at what they do and how their work changes our community for the better.

Research is conducted in a variety of different ways using different methods and methodologies. How these methods are used is imperative to how clear and accurate research will be. Community needs assessment is a research method used by many researchers that assists in finding gaps within a particular target group within a particular community. Throughout this paper I will discuss what a community needs assessment is and when and how it is used. I will also discuss some of the strengths and limitations of this method. I then continue to explain some theoretical and practical perspectives when dealing with this method and how it would apply when conducting your own research in a