Heritage

“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

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

In order to deliver nursing care to different cultures, nurses are expected to understand and provide culturally competent health care to diverse individuals. Culturally competent care is tailored to the specific needs of each client, while incorporating the individual’s beliefs and values (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2006, p. 90). By being culturally competent, nurses are able to help improve health outcomes by using cultural knowledge and specific skills in selecting interventions that are specific to each client (Stanhope & Lancaster). Therefore, nurses “should perform a cultural assessment on every client with whom they interact with” (Stanhope &

Nurses have the responsibility of caring for a diverse group of people. These people come from different cultures, races, and religious backgrounds. Religion plays a major role in patient care and has for many years. Cultural competency is a major component of nursing practices. Understanding culture is imperative in knowing what is important to a patient and how to address his or her healthcare needs. Understanding culture is also important when determining what suggestions to make about interventions for treatment. Culture is defined as many people interacting and sharing with one another their patterns of behavior, beliefs and values (Burkhardt, G. & Nathaniel, A., 2014).

One action that can be taken by nurses to ensure that culturally appropriate care is given is to be aware of their patient’s culture and practices as well as their own. This not only is to understand that people from different cultures can have different beliefs and practices, but to also understand that practices that may seem odd to someone are completely normal to others. For instance, a patient that might believe in the practices of folk medicine, “which incorporates certain unfamiliar healing rituals, or promotes the ingestion of an array of plant-based concoctions as mixed and prescribed by a healer,” may seem odd or even pointless to a nurse (website). Despite the nurse’s view, they need to understand that this is what this patient believes in and that these beliefs need to be respected. Furthermore, another component of being culturally competent is to practice cultural encounter.

In conclusion, all three ethnicities have varying lifestyles that contribute to their current status of health. It is important to keep in mind that this is

One of the first steps to providing culturally competent care is to learn about the predominant cultures cared for within a particular healthcare system. This means utilizing community and government resources, analyzing the demographics of the surrounding population, and seeking patient input. Nurses can become culturally competent simply by having daily cross-cultural interactions with both their colleagues and their clients (Killian & Waite, 2009, p. 2). Simply inquiring about ethnically diverse clients, provides a better foundation and framework for becoming a

Being able to provide culturally competent care is a lifelong skill that improves a human life (Leininger, 1988). Learning about cultural difference as well as talking to the patient in order to learn more about his or her believe in practice may help provide cultural care. Caring for different cultures give the nurse a chance to learn about that patient’s cultures and values. The nursing care provider must provide trust, advocacy and privacy to the patient. Promoting health, wellness, preventing illness, and assisting in the healing and recovery process is the end result for every culturally sensitive nurse (Leininger, 2000).

Nurses may not always understand diverse practices that their patients follow, but it is their duty to provide care that is compatible with their patient’s belief system, otherwise care may be altered. Nardi et al. (2012) found that educational tools are a key factor in improving a nurse’s perception of diversity, and helps them establish more positive patient outcomes by developing knowledge of different cultural practices. Nurses must show genuine concern for their patient, therefore allowing patients to explain their cultural beliefs can aid nurses in learning more about diverse practices, thus showing respect for another ones

The demographics of the United States is changing to one that is multicultural, multiethnic, and multilingual. Culture is a vital component in the health and wellness of individuals. Culture affects individuals' beliefs, definition of health, treatments, and interaction with healthcare providers. These beliefs may affect the patient’s compliance with medication or therapy. In order to address the diverse beliefs of today’s population the advance practice nurse must be culturally competent. Barker and DeNisco (2013) defined cultural

As the population of the United States continues to become more diverse, healthcare providers should effectively communicate with each patient regardless of their culture, nationality, religion or socioeconomic status. Nurses and other providers should be delivering patient centered care that is culturally competent. “Culture also includes the integrated pattern of thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions associated, wholly or partially, with racial, ethnic, or linguistic groups, as well as with religious, spiritual, biological, geographical, or sociological characteristics” (Lamb, 2014, p. 132). Nurses are caring for a culturally diverse population, so considering the role of culture, language, and

Culture is a pattern of behavior and values shared by an ethnic group. Cultural heritage is a set of traditions within the culture that is hand down from the older generation to the younger generation within the family. These traditions influence the family’s decisions in relation to their diet, education, daily living activities, religious beliefs and practices and also health and illness beliefs. In this paper, the author will focus on the usefulness of applying a heritage assessment in evaluating the needs of a person as a whole. Three different cultures including authors will be discussed about the health maintenance, health promotion, and health restoration. The author will also evaluate health traditions which

Nurses have many responsibilities and tasks to perform; one is to know the values and beliefs of different cultures and religions. The United States is considered to be a melting pot, which means that lots of different cultures have been brought together in one large community. Some values have been shared and mixed between different people, while others are special to certain religions or have not been taken into their set of beliefs. Using research, I have found that Christianity is the largest religious group practiced and consist of many different sectors. The minority religions practiced are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and other faiths that are non-affiliated (Pew, 2015). All religions are

Nursing requires a tremendous amount of care both physically and psychosocially. Besides having a well-rounded medical knowledge, it is important for nurses to be aware of religious and cultural practices that are utilized in the world today. There is a multiplicity of different religious backgrounds and gaining knowledge on their differences and important traditions will allow nurses to provide competent care.

Nursing practice based on a transcultural theory enhances the nurse’s ability to implement interventions for positive health care outcomes. Spiritual awareness begins with an adequate and accurate cultural assessment. Information obtained during the assessment phase serves as a foundation to the nurse’s plan of care. Conducting a cultural assessment and incorporating it into the nursing care plan can prevent unintentional culturally insensitive actions, relationship strain and potentially fatal outcomes. It is important that the nurses are aware of their individual spiritual and personal beliefs and practices. Subconscious spiritually insensitive actions can interfere with spiritual nursing care. The nurse must acknowledge beliefs and