Intercultural Abilities Nurses Should Have

“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

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,

Both articles express how important it is to be culturally self-aware and in touch with your personal beliefs, views, and morals. If you aren’t aware of what your cultural beliefs are you won’t be able to provide you patients with the cultural care and respect that they require in their recovery to become healthy again. In addition, the two articles (Newson 2009, Byrson 2012) both talk about how important it is to be open minded with people who may have a different opinions and views on certain things. If you aren’t open to treating you patients in the cultural way that they want to be treated, your patient will feel disrespected and unimportant. Therefore, their health will suffer because of your incompetence to accommodate their cultural needs. A nurse needs to be culturally self-aware, they need to know what their own personal views are first so they can understand that not everyone’s views will be the same. This means they need to be capable of being open and accepting to other people’s cultural wants and needs. By being these two things you will be able to provide people of all cultures with the respect and treatment they

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

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

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 &

The nursing profession is known for being a caring and compassionate career path that is loving and accepting of all individuals. The traits of many of us are based on our cultural background and therefore it is important to be culturally aware of different traditions and preferences pertaining to cultures that we directly interact with. Both taking into consideration the patient’s culture and recognizing the impact of one’s own personal beliefs are competencies that a nurse should demonstrate and are listed under the first standard of practice according to the American Nurses Association (ANA, 2015).

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.

The United States is a diverse accumulation of cultural backgrounds which can often set the stage for feelings of confusion, anger, mistrust, and a host of other emotions when dissimilar cultures disagree. Cultural competence in nursing can help eliminate these barriers and provide a platform for nursing to follow in the quest to understand a patient's culture and background. When a nurse takes the time to learn about a given culture prior to providing care, it conveys she respects the patient's right to their beliefs, customs, and culture. It does not necessarily mean the nurse agrees with their practices but

Culture competence is a quality that any nurse should have. The article that I decided to research refers to the impact that language and different cultures have on a patient’s health. It is the duty of health care professionals to attempt to learn about different cultures and to be sensitive to the way patient’s feel about their beliefs. Once the nurse understands a patient’s

The purpose of this study is to provide cultural diversity knowledge to RNs caring for patients and to emphasize that the lack of understanding culture diversity, delivery of culturally competent care may result in poor patients’ outcomes. The theoretical framework for this project is noted in the theory of Transcultural Nursing founded by Leininger, which explains cultural diversity and cultural competence. Sagar (2012) reported that Leininger acknowledged the benefits of understanding a patient’s culture and caring knowledge in the improvement of the quality of care. The application of this choice of theory centers on understanding patients’ culture and then incorporating the patient’s cultural content into their plan of care (Easterby & et al 2012). Nurses, along with being an observant of patients, must be knowledgeable about a person’s culture and diverse factors influencing the whole person. Knowing the whole person strengthens the commitment bond between nurse-patient relationship (Green & et al, 2015). The three action modes in Transcultural Nursing Theory for providing culturally, holistic health during a patient’s well-being, illness and dying phase, according to Leininger (2006a, p. 8) are “preservation/maintenance;accommodation/negotiation; and repattering/ restructuring”. The rationale for providing cultural diversity education to nurses is to empower them with knowledge so that they can better serve, provide quality care and help patients

Health care professionals need to be culturally aware and competent in order to give the best care possible. The American Association of College of Nursing defines cultural competencies as “the attitudes, knowledge, and skills necessary for providing quality care to diverse populations” (California Endowment, 2003). In order for nurses to have the capability to provide this type of care, they must have the understanding of their own personal cultural awareness and capability. After performing a self-assessment and analysis, I was able to determine my own knowledge, attitude and biases related to cultural awareness and competency in order to provide culturally competent nursing care to patients. Personal biases must be put aside while attaining cultural competence.

Effectively executing the beliefs of transcultural nursing can eradicate barriers to communication that may hinder the nurse’s ability to provide patients with excellent care. Successful communication includes the understanding of both verbal and non-verbal languages (Scherman, 2017). Nurses need to attain transcultural competency to improve care for all patients. These can include medical treatments, holidays, and prohibited foods and drinks (Kanchana & Sangamesh, 2016). Each culture has its own beliefs and the nurse must adhere to their wishes, even if it that means a patient is denying life-saving medical treatment.

It is important, however, that a well-intentioned desire to achieve cultural competence does not result in oversimplification and stereotyping. There is variation within cultural groups and uniqueness to individual experiences that must also be considered. Nurses must aspire to respect differences in culture and treat patients in a manner that instills trust. The American Nurses Association developed a set of standards of practice for culturally competent nursing to ensure that all patients’ specific needs are addressed, as well as ensuring equity in the workplace