Nursing Coat of Arms: Cultural Competence, Communication, Empathy, Teamwork, and Pride

“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 is the ability to interact well with people of different cultural backgrounds (Rundle, 2002). It provides the best ways of meeting the needs of diverse patient population which is always on the increase, as well as ways of effectively advocating for them. This means that cultural competence has the benefit of enabling nurses to deliver services that respect and effectively respond to health beliefs and practice needs of diverse patients. Through the process of globalization, nurses are moving to places of nursing shortage to offer their knowledge and skills beyond their home

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,

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

The main ideas that Lisa Bourque Bearskin is stating in this article is that nurses need to be more sensitive to cultural care. They need to be aware of the issues in healthcare and strive to remove any barriers for certain groups, such as the first nations, and they need to disrupt any unequal relations in the social, political and historical aspect of healthcare. The way this can be done is by shifting their thoughts from cultural competence to cultural safety by way of relational ethics. Cultural competence is explained as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that nurses need to use to care for cultural differences. Another framework described cultural competence as going through the stages of cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skill, cultural encounter, and cultural desire. Cultural competency works very well when making policies in an agency but this view fosters a view of culture that does not encourage nurses to ask questions. (Bearskin, 2011) Cultural Competence causes different cultures to be put in a box, which cannot be done because cultures are constantly changing and every person’s culture is different. Culture is individual. Lisa Bourque Bearskin goes on to say that cultural safety is what nurses should use for ethical practice. In cultural safety, a nurse must strive to improve health care and its access for all people, while recognizing that there are many different cultures that have a right to be recognized. Bourque

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 &

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.

Communication is life long learning skills for nurses. Communication can be in different forms. It can be verbal or non verbal. Communication is important

Listening and attending, empathy, information giving and support in the context of a nurse-patient relationship are identified as essential communication skills in nursing (Timmins, 2007).

Remote communities such as those in northern Canada consistently experience a shortage of healthcare providers (HCP) including nurses (Place, Macleod, Moffitt & Pitblado, 2014). Due to the cultural and geographical uniqueness of these areas, challenges are inevitable, however, it can be undoubtedly rewarding. Nurses can particularly gain valuable experience regarding the importance of cultural competence and its implementation.Therefore, this paper will discuss the context of northern Canadian communities as well as three challenges and three benefits faced by nurses working there. Considering the populations in these communities are culturally diverse, it is especially essential for the nurses to have the appropriate cultural knowledge and skills in working with these populations. Consequently, we will also explore the definition of cultural competence, other terms used to describe this concept and how nurses can ensure they have the necessary cultural competence to work with these communities.

Communication is any form of expressing and receiving of messages between individuals. The importance of Communication in the nursing profession is to maintain high quality care for the patient but also maintain effective collaboration between professionals. Boykins, D (2014) states that the “registered nurse is expected to communicate in various formats and in all areas of practice”. Various formats include speaking to patients and coworkers as well as utilizing appropriate protocols and systems to effectively communicate regards to patient’s status.

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).

Increasing nurses’ degree of cultural competence begins with baccalaureate nursing education and curriculum. Long (2012) infers that despite nursing schools’ inclusion of cultural diversity content in coursework, the curriculum highlights theory and knowledge without emphasizing the need to develop culturally sensitive skills in nursing practice. Cultural knowledge is only one of the steps involved in enhancing student nurses’ cultural competence. It is essential for baccalaureate nursing students to also exercise self-awareness of cultural values, beliefs, and personal prejudices through multiple learning experiences, which requires a great amount of time, training, and self-reflection (Long, 2012). In addition to traditional lecture presentations,

People around the world has different beliefs. There have been issues between healthcare professionals and patients due to cultural incompetence. Hospitals are trying to find ways to improve their quality of care by hiring nurses overseas. Cultural competence is an ability to learn and understand the difference of languages and culture around the globe (Murphy, 2011). Nurses should acquire this skill before attending their patients.