Ethnic Nursing Home Patient Analysis

“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

Cultural competence can be defined as using the ability of one’s awareness, attitude, knowledge and skill to effectively interact with a patient’s many cultural differences. Madeline Leininger, a pioneer on transcultural nursing describes it this way; “a formal area of study and practice focused on comparative human-care differences and similarities of the beliefs, values and patterned lifeways of cultures to provide culturally congruent, meaningful, and beneficial health care to people” (Barker, 2009, p. 498). The importance of cultural diversity in healthcare allows for the delivery of appropriate cultural autonomy. Showing respect for others will lead to trust between nurse and

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.

Who is the person the nurse is caring for? Where is that person from? Does this person speak English, or understand what the caregiver is saying? What is this person’s cultural background? What are the health beliefs of this person, what are their illness beliefs and practices? These questions are answered differently depending upon the person and their heritage. As healthcare providers it is important to have a broad knowledge base in regards to different cultures and people’s practices to deliver effective health care. In 2006, the population of

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.

There is limited healthcare services and literature that is culturally and linguistically appropriate for culturally diverse populations. These barriers have been shown over the years to threaten how effective care is for these populations. The healthcare system depends on nurses to facilitate services, care plans and educate patients on various health issues.

The National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) are designed to improve health quality and fairness by helping health organizations implement cultural and linguistic services in their facilities (United States Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), Office of Minority Health, n.d.). In this discussion, I will describe one CLAS standard that is significant to the Haitan-American culture, how I can implement culturally competent care to these individuals utilizing this standard, and what the biggest nursing challenge would be when implementing competent care to this culture.

In my counseling the older adult class we discussed in great detail the different types of culture, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. and how it affects the way we as health care providers of helpers should approach a person. I’ve learned in my ongoing time here at CMC that there are all kinds of diversity within the healthcare field, amongst the doctors, case managers, nurse practitioners, registered nurses and others caregivers. There is also a lot of diversity within the patients’ in the hospital. Some patients’ come from within the community and some may just be visiting or coming from surrounding communities. Along with the difference in community and backgrounds that the patients’ come from they also vary by illness or healthcare need. At first it is hard to realize the difference among those that come

I understand it is essential that I become aware of my own cultural background to effectively provide the best care to my patients. A nurse cannot provide appropriate cultural care without having knowledge and a basic understanding of cultural competency.

            The world has become ethnically diverse owing to the increase in global mobility of the general population. Nevertheless, the nursing principles regarding the care of patients advocate for the development of cultural competence. While working with students from other programs, I realized the need for hospitals and health care agencies to accommodate the special needs of the culturally diverse populations. This is especially because we all as a team act as advocates for the

Health disparities among individuals, families, and communities that experienced social and economic disadvantages continue to face greater obstacles to optimal health and health care as they age. Exclusion and discrimination is known to influence health status. Examples of exclusion include race or ethnicity, religion, gender, age, mental health, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity, and geographic location. Poor two-way communication and distrust in the health care system are added factors affecting the quality of health care for minority seniors.

As nurses, we adjust our care accordingly to each patient. It is vital that we not only assess our patients physically, but assess all aspects of their lives, including their cultures. For this paper I will discuss the key components of a comprehensive cultural assessment. I will also choose two of the key components and discuss my own culture and how it affects my attitude to culturally diverse care. Last, I will identify two nursing diagnoses that would relate to a patient with a culture other than my own, as well as give proper interventions.

Cultural competence in nursing involves the application of skills, knowledge, personal attributes, and attitudes required by practitioners to maintain a respectful relationship with patients, co-workers, and other clients. Markedly, the essential components of competent cultural care in nursing includes cultural skill, cultural awareness, cultural encounter, cultural knowledge, and cultural desire. Cultural awareness involves an in-depth self-examination of one’s professional and cultural background whereas cultural knowledge includes gathering information of various ethnic and cultural groups. The ability of a nurse to acquire cultural data of a patient and perform a specific assessment of it is known as cultural skill. A cultural encounter is a process where nurses are involved in cross-cultural relations with patients from varying cultural backgrounds. The motivation to engage in cultural encounters and become culturally aware is referred to as cultural desire (Huber, 2009).

As a nurse we should provide best possible care no matter if we understand our patient or there is a language barrier, there are methods we can use to communicate such as non verbal communication or we can ask interpreter or family member to help us communicate efficiently with a patient. To be able to provide competent care for patients from different cultures we must understand they believes and we should make sure we would avoiding stereotyping or assuming what is good for one patient would be same acceptable for

Nowadays, nurses not only need to know how to care of their patients, but they also must be able to care of patients from other cultures with many beliefs and values. Cultural views of individual influence the patient’s perception and decision of health and health care (Creasia & Parker, 2007). In order to care for people across different languages and cultures, nurses need to develop cultural sensitivity, knowledge, and skills.