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Cultural Reflection Paper

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Culture is seen everywhere. Being raised in a Chinese/Japanese culture house hold, the culture I grew up in was always different from the one I learned from school or my peers. Since I come from a diverse background, I have always had a personal interest in learning about other cultures that differ from mine. As a nursing student, we are constantly taught about cultural competency and how to treat patients based on cultural preferences. When I found out about this Cultural Anthropology course, I did not think twice about registering for it. I was not sure what Cultural Anthropology was entirely about, but I was excited to learn more about it. In the first chapter, “Anthropology and Human Diversity,” the term holistic/holism was introduced. In this course, holism is used to describe an approach that considers all the essentials such as, culture, history, language, and biology to completely understand human society. Holism is used to understand and explain how to analyze human groups through learned and shared patterns of human behavior and thoughts. As you study culture and people, you want to know each factor their culture. In my experience as a nursing student, we are taught to be culturally competent and always care for a person holistically through their body, mind, and soul. When I am treating my patients, every individual is different from another making their background and history different. Therefore, caring for them as a whole, mentally and physically, is crucial to a patient’s care. Chapter two, “Doing Cultural Anthropology,” we learned about the term ethnocentrism, which means judging other cultures from your own point of view. This is the belief that your own culture is better and greater than others. As nurses, we have to keep our own opinions and preferences away from our patient’s beliefs and opinion. Even though we do not have to understand or approve of their traditions and culture, no judgments should be made while someone in under your care. Being open-minded is critical in nursing practice. For example, my patient is a Christian and do not believe abortions are acceptable. Even though she thinks this that does not mean I have to agree with her because her opinions regarding that issue

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