How Culture Affects Nursing Care And The Way Humans Care For Themselves

“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

Nurses must consider the cultural health practices when assessing patients. The Culture Care Theory is essential and must be incorporated into other nursing theories as understanding cultures and cultural practices will enable nurses to think critically and function at full capacity when interacting and creating treatment plans for patients in a diverse environment.

Madeliene Leininger was one of the first people to recognize that cultural differences influence an individual’s response to health care activities and that these cultural differences also affect experiences of well-being, health, illness, disability and death. During her career, Leininger noticed eight factors occurring in the world around her that directly impacted people of different cultures. She used these factors to frame the theory of transcultural nursing, and today, they are still relevant. She observed a sharp increase in population migration between countries across the globe. She experienced people who

Leininger (1988) defined nursing as a transcultural phenomenon requiring knowledge of different cultures to provide care that is congruent with the clients’ life ways, social structure, and environmental context. This definition from the founder of transcultural care would support applying a cultural sensitive nursing care in the clinical setting, and highly linked to her definition of transcultural nursing as a legitimate and formal area of study focused on culturally based care beliefs, values, and practices to help cultures or subcultures maintain or regain their health (wellbeing) and face disabilities or death in culturally congruent and beneficial caring ways (Leininger, 1970, 1978, 1995). Moreover Leininger summarized the process of applying transcultural care as providing care that fits with cultural beliefs and life ways. From a professional perspective, it refers to the use of emic (local cultural knowledge and life ways) in meaningful and tailored ways that fit with etic (largely professional outsiders’ knowledge), in other words care should be individualized according to patient’s culture to promote holistic and effective nursing care.

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,

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

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 &

With there being such a plethora of cultures in the world, there are so many different beliefs and practices involving health and wellness, that almost everyone has a different definition of health, and different views on disease and illness in general. My definition of health involves many different aspects, but most importantly living a healthy lifestyle overall; being free from illness, and doing everything possible to stay that way. Eating a well-balanced diet, exercising regularly, and getting plenty of sleep along with protecting your

Transcultural nursing theory by Madeleine Leininger has general perspectives to the nurse, patient, environment, health, illness, and wellness. According to the caregivers, transcultural nursing theory by Madeleine Leininger is one of the most effective philosophies on health care. It is a theory commonly used by nearly all health facilities worldwide. Most nurses state that transcultural philosophy has had positive effect patient care (George, 2011). The philosophy focuses more on cultural competency, therefore, increasing efficacy of nursing. Increased nurse efficacy resulted from learning cultural beliefs and values of the patients.

In the profession of nursing, an essential aspect is the ability for a nurse to provide culturally competent care to each one of his/her patients. This requires the nurse to understand how a person’s culture can affect the way they care for them. The focus of this paper will be on a model put together to assist nurses in providing care to culturally diverse patients, specifically caring for patients a part of the Chinese culture in the children and family transition of life. The summary and application of the six phenomena in the relation to the Chinese culture followed by the nursing implications of those cultural variances are described below.

Health is defined a state of wellbeing which is equally viewed by many different cultures. However, the definition of wellbeing is seen differently among cultures, in relationship to their beliefs and values. (DeNisco & Barker, 2015). Cultural care in nursing is a very important part of nursing care, whether the nurse is a bedside RN or a practicing primary care NP. There are many theories in nursing related to cultural care. Most encompass the need for nurses to take into consideration the cultural caring behaviors and values of individuals and families to provide culturally competent nursing care.

Madeleine Leininger’s cultural care theory is one of the most influential modern day theories in nursing. Leininger describes her theory as one that is cultural sensitive that is tailored to address patients of different cultures, backgrounds, or origins. Leininger develops the cultural care theory due to the fact that she believes that nurses are caring for their patients as a one hat fits all, and not taking into consideration the patient 's background or their culture.

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.

Contemporary nursing has certainly become more multi-disciplinary in the last few decades. Even nursing theory tends to now take into account the changing dynamics of the market, and needed responses from healthcare. One seminal theory, for instance, that asks the modern nurse to explain their approach to patient care, advocacy, and more modern issues of alternative therapies is Madeline Leninger's Multicultural Nursing Paradigm, Synergizing the concept of care and the challenges of both financial management and the changing demographic nature of nursing, Leininger's model presupposed that the basic practical knowledge of theoretical nursing is already part of the skill set, but that through a gradual improvement and ease of the technical matters, experience will lend itself to a relaxed, caring focus. This may, in contemporary culture, mean being more ethno-sensitive, learning to explore ways of communication in languages other than English, understanding different cultural phobias and mores, and looking at alternative therapies that may benefit the patient. Leininger certainly avows a diverse and multicultural approach to the healthcare paradigm, and has room for alternative therapies and an openness that many other Western theories lack. Leininger specifically acknowledges the manner in which cultural care in diverse situations is essential for the growth and well-being of humans. Her theory also asserts that care is a universal phenomenon with

Transcultural nursing plays an increasingly important role in health care today. The constantly growing multicultural population in the world has made it challenging for nurses to provided individualized patient care. Nurses must gain the knowledge, skills, and the ability to identify and understand the unique cultural differences and how it affects patient care. Research has shown that culturally sensitive nursing care encourages patient satisfaction and positive outcomes. Nurses today are using the Culture Care Theory, developed by nursing theorist Madeleine Leininger, worldwide to provide culturally sensitive patient care.