Psychosocial Support For Oncology Patients

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.

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

“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

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.

According to the American Cancer Society, half of all men and one third of all women will develop cancer within their lifetime (Cancer.org). These figures are staggering. Cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide and is a terrifying and unpredictable disease for many cancer sufferers. As such, it is imperative that healthcare workers have a thorough understanding of the various cancer diagnoses, treatments, and preventative strategies necessary to combat this devastating plague. Skills at managing not only the illness itself, but also the psychological and social side effects

The care needs of patients continue to change, as the United States population becomes more diverse. Nurses will be required to be more knowledgeable and respectful of the differences in cultural and religious beliefs as this diversity continues. The American Nurses Association (ANA) states, “knowledge of cultural diversity is vital at all levels of nursing practice…nurses need to understand: how cultural group groups define health and illness; what cultural groups do to maintain wellness; what cultural groups believe to be the causes of illness; and how healers cure and care

As many patient´s illness beings to progress, many are left feeling “useless” as their health begins to deteriorate and they are unable to function as they used to. And from scheduled check-ups to surgeries, the hospital bill begins to rack up which may cause patients to feel like burdens to the family. According to a case study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a 56-year-old man with leukemia and his wife/caregiver were unemployed due to his condition and her efforts to care for him. She had many caregiving responsibilities such as “cleaning, driving, preparing meals, and coordinating medication, oxygen and other treatment-related activities”. From having no source of income, her finances were limited leading to her close watch on expenses. Meanwhile, as she focused on her husband’s health, she had failed to address her own health conditions. Lacking a support system, the intense and unpredictable future associated with shouldering the burden of her husband's outpatient care created a stressful atmosphere as she alternated her daily life schedule in order to meet his needs. In many instances of cancer, a patient's’ chances of becoming mentally and physically disabled increases. Resulting from such disabling illnesses often leaves the patient's feeling helpless as they begin to lose parts of their minds and bodies.

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

Working with culturally diverse patients with a mental health disorder will present a number of obstacles such as communication, values, beliefs and attitudes towards one another. Values, beliefs and attitudes are the standards which the patient will judge themselves and those of the people around them such as the multi disciplinary team including the Enrolled Nurse (Koutoukidis et al, 2013, p 143). When working with a culturally diverse patient the Enrolled Nurse may be at risk of prejudice and/or stereotyping due to caring for previous patients and personal beliefs, it is important to remember that each patient will have different views, values, beliefs and attitude towards others. To work effectively with the cultural diverse patient the

To identify the palliative care needs, the research presented the patients with the Short Form 36 (SF36), using the Hospital and Anxiety and Depression Questionnaire (HADS). The patients and significant others (n=35), were separated for the researcher to conduct an unstructured interview. Following the questionnaire, the multiprofessional clinical team conducted a focus group debate (n=18).

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.

Continuity of care is a concern especially with respect to quality of healthcare. Ideally, the concept of continuity of care can be perceived from the point of view of patients and providers. It is mainly related to the satisfaction of patients with both facets of interpersonal and coordination of care. Traditionally, continuity of health care is perceived as the endless relationship between the patients and identified health care providers. However, continuity of care cannot be evaluated mainly through the experiences and testimonials of patients because it is entangled to other aspects such as case management and multidisciplinary team work (Suominen et al., 2014). On the other hand, providers’ focus on continuity of health care is on improvised models of health service delivery and enhancing the quality of patient outcome. Thus, the two aspects of health care are brought together to enhance the care of patient and to facilitate healthcare centered on the patient. This paper discusses how patient care can be enforced by different multi-disciplinary teams as patient progresses from hospital admission, to discharge or in an outpatient situation. The focus of this paper is on cancer patients and the care that they receive from service providers.

This patient is an employee of SRHS and received services from Cancer Care. Rather than writing it off with the employee discount, Brenda was able to get financial assistance from the Patient Access Network Foundation in the amount of $912.45. She noted the account prior to making the payment stating that $912.45 was for copay assistance from Remicade. When I took the CC payment, I also noted the account showing payment was received from the Foundation. The billing office refunded that payment, not to the patient, but back to the Foundation. More than likely, that money will not come back to us since they didn’t read the notes and/or ask any questions. There have been other accounts where payments have been taken, leaving a credit balance,

I have been a registered nurse at UCLA for 18 months. One particular issue that has captured my attention is the utilization of palliative care in health care. Because nurses are generally at the bedside all the time, they have an important role to play in voicing the importance of its utilization and implementation in the patient’s care.