Culture And Health Challenges For Nurses And Providers

“Health is influenced by culture and beliefs” (NRS-429V, 2011, p. 1). In order for the nurse to properly care for the patient, she must know and understand the patient’s culture. “Cultural care is a comprehensive model that includes the assessment of a client’s cultural needs, beliefs, and health care practices” (NRS-429V, 2011, p. 1). It is not enough to just know where the patient lives or where he came from. The nurse must embrace the concept of cultural competence and cultural awareness. This requires not only the awareness of the cultural beliefs and values of their patients, but also

Health in all cultures is an important aspect of life. A person’s cultural background, religion and/or beliefs, greatly influences a person’s health and their response to medical care (Spector, 2004). These diverse cultures guide decisions made in daily life; what food eaten, living arrangements made, medications taken and medical advice listened to. A nurse must be knowledgeable and respectful of these diverse cultures and understand their importance when providing care. This understanding helps to build a strong nurse/patient relationship, increasing patient compliance, which ensures positive outcomes are met. Patients who are satisfied

As a Filipino-American nurse living in Los Angeles, California, this writer has been a witness and an active participant in the multifactorial influences/aspects that affect the Filipino-Americans, in health and illness. Being a grandmother of wonderful grandkids has brought me further exposure to the plight of elderly Filipino-Americans in the United States of America.

Cultural competence is defined as possessing the skills and knowledge necessary to appreciate, respect, and work with individuals from different cultures. It is a concept that requires self-awareness, awareness and understanding of cultural differences, and the ability to adapt to clinical skills and practices as needed

With the large increase multicultural population in the United States, nurses encounter patients with differences in healthcare beliefs, values and customs. To provide adequate nursing care, nurses must be aware of these differences. They must respect and acknowledge the patient’s culture. To do this, nurses need education on cultural competence to ensure patient satisfaction and better patient outcomes.

I consider myself to be a fairly traditional American white woman, with non-denominational Christian beliefs. My ethnicity is sort of a mixture of Irish, German, Native American and a few others, but my main cultural background is traditional American. I do not put a lot of emphasis on my ethnicity, because in my opinion and the opinion of many others as well, Caucasian American can be race and ethnicity. I celebrate traditional American holidays such as Christmas, Independence Day and Thanksgiving. I do eat traditional American foods, but I also love ethnic foods of all kinds. According to McKinney, James, Murray, Nelson and Ashwill (2013), “Belief in Jesus Christ as the son of God and the Messiah comprises the central core of Christianity” and “Study of biblical scripture; practicing faith, good works, and sacramental rites (e.g., baptism, communion, and others); and prayer are common among most Christian faiths” (p.44). I am non-denominational; however, I do believe this statement sums up the main core of my beliefs. I pray, I have been baptized, I believe in good deeds, and attending church. The only difference is that I do not believe that you must attend church or partake in communion to have a relationship with God; I believe that relationship is rather personal. Now in terms of American culture in the healthcare setting, Euromed Info Online indicates that Western industrialized societies such as the United States, which

Culture is a multifaceted characters of a diverse sets of people that have a common ground on values, languages, emotions and identity. It is a symbolic communication perpetuated in a much larger society that influence by means of conditioning and imitation from one generation to the next. Knowledge of cultural diversity is crucial at all levels of nursing practice. It require nurses to be challenge on a multilevel amplitude of social character and commitment. It is empirical that the nurse consider specific cultural factors impacting on each individual patients and be able to recognize its differences. The impact of cultural diversity on each patient start with the nurse as a co-provider and influence on the perceptions, interpretations and behaviors of a particular specific cultural group. Nurses need to understand the validity of how culture minded patients understand life process, health, illness, death, and dying. Through collaboration and scientific evidence of multicultural society can bring about a culturally-relevant and responsive services.

Overall, the health of Americans has improved over the past several decades. However, there is still an inconsistency between the health of various racial groups, minorities, and Caucasians (Cook, Kosoko-Lasaki, & O'Brien, R., 2005). Bakullari et al. (2014) report that specific research related to patient safety and racial and ethnic differences in HAIs is also lacking. As a result of these discrepancies, Bakullari et al. (2014) implemented a study to determine the rate and occurrence of HAIs in six specific racial/ethnic groups (white non-Hispanic, black non-Hispanic, Asian, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, and other). What they found was that Hispanic and Asian populations had a significantly higher occurrence of HAIs than white non-Hispanic populations (Bakullari et al., 2014).

It is imperative to understand the cultures of the nurses that you are working with, with the growth of cultural differences with in the nursing profession, and the numbers are growing. We must be sensitive to the needs of our fellow nurses. Understanding their culture can be an easy step, with just asking simple questions, these questions will show that we validate the nurses culture but also shows signs of respect that we even care enough to ask. The nurse that feels respect from her co-workers, and the management feels job satisfaction, and is less likely will leave or move to another position.

Today when people move across continents with the help of technology their culture and heritage moves along with them. Almost each and every continent is populated with people from different nations who have diverse traditions and cultures. Thus knowledge of health traditions and culture plays a vital role in nursing. People from different cultures have a unique view on health and illness. Culture-specific care is a vital skill to the modern nurse, as the United States continues to consist of many immigrants who have become assimilated into one culture. I interviewed three families of different cultures: - Indian (my culture), Hispanic and Chinese. Let us see the differences in health traditions between these cultures.

My southern heritage has directly influenced the person I am today. I grew up in South Louisiana and I have lived there all 25 years of my life. My childhood was not easy, but I think those tough situations prepared me for life, and taught me the value of family. I attended a private, Christian school and I am so appreciative of my parent’s sacrifices that allowed me to receive that education. I would describe myself as a kind, hardworking individual who respects, cares for, and values others. I believe these attributes are a genuine reflection of my upbringing. My Christian faith is what motivates me each day and it is also what has inspired me to help others through a career in nursing.

The theory chosen for analysis in this paper is Madeleine Leininger’s Cultural Care Diversity Theory. Leinenger’s theory looks at individual patients’ with relation to their cultural heritage. The pieces of her theory include culture, culture care, and culture-care similarities and differences pertaining to transcultural human care (CCN, 2014). This middle range theory has the potential to influence nurses to provide culturally competent care to patients such as Hispanics. The writer of this paper has unintentionally used Leinenger’s theory in practice while caring for patients. There

In the first scenario, the nurse was going to listen to the patient's lung sounds and she moved her hair to the side and saw numerous red circular marks on her back. The nurse immediately freaked out and started saying things like "oh my god, what are these marks on your back?", "Are you being abused?", and "I'm a mandatory reporter" (DiversityNursing, 2011). She did not give the patient a chance to speak up and explain the situation. Instead, the nurse stormed out of the room before the patient could talk. This type of cultural incompetence did not enable ethically sound nursing care. The second time around in the video, the nurse started off by asking the patient how she would like to be referred to. When the nurse saw her back and the marks

A disparity can be defined as a difference, an inequality, a discrepancy, a gap, or an inconsistency. Within individual cultures, there are health disparities, or specific differences of a population in the existence of health outcomes, disease, health care access, and value of health care services existing across ethnic and racial groups. Disparities can stand for ineffectiveness within the system of health care and thus accounting for unnecessary costs. (Douglas and Paquiao, 2010) The Filipino culture has numerous factors leading to insufficient access to care and reduced quality of care, some of them being cultural habits concerning diet, language, and screening rates, as well as behavioral and mental health. Every culture has its own traditional beliefs and values amongst which can be shared transculturally to better international health whereas there are also those that are influenced by the Filipino culture that can be seen as non beneficial to future generations.

The United States is made up of a very large, and diverse group of people. Every day more and more individuals come to the United States to begin a new life. As nurses, it is imperative to be aware, as well as respect other individual’s cultures, values, and beliefs, in order to provide the best care possible to our diverse patient population. In this paper, I will discuss the necessity of the transcultural nursing specialty, cultural diversity, and give examples of how to provide culturally sensitive care.