The Giger And Davidhizer Transcultural Assessment Model

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

Theories of transcultural nursing with established clinical approaches to clients were founded in the mid-1960s and are an essential aspect of healthcare today. The ever-increasing multicultural population in the United States poses a significant challenge to nurses providing individualized and holistic care to their patients. Accurate assessments identify factors that define transcultural nursing and analyze methods to promote culturally competent nursing care.” (Maier-Lorentz, 2008)

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

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 &

Adapting to different cultural beliefs and practices requires flexibility and a respect for others view points. Cultural competence means to really listen to the patient, to find out and learn about the patient's beliefs of health and illness. To provide culturally appropriate care we need to know and to understand culturally influenced health behaviors. However, becoming culturally competent is a much more daunting task. Culture (and ethnicity) often influences a patient’s perceptions of health and illness. Therefore, if healthcare providers appear insensitive to cultural diversity, their actions may negatively affect the quality of the healthcare that they provide.

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.

Cultural diversity has different meaning to each and every one. Some of us considering cultural diversity to be acquired where for the others it’s a skill that they have to learn. It’s very important that the health care providers are knowledgeable and sensitive to cultural differences because they are the ones to deal with the patients of different background on a daily basis. Being cultural savvy will help them to give the best patient care. For that reason, health care workers must be especially aware that addressing cultural diversity goes above the values, beliefs, practices and customs. An outstanding medical professional has a good manner and makes patients feel comfortable and at ease during exams and treatments. Cultural knowledge is the skill to respond appropriately to people of different cultures, ages, races, religions, sexual orientations, abilities, and ethnicities, and embrace on the way that will allow a person to feel respected and valued. The article "Diversity & Cultural Competency in Health Care Settings" discusses diversity in health care environment, "A health care professional who has learned cultural competence engages in assistive, supportive, facilitative, or enabling acts that are tailor-made to fit with individual, group, or institutional, cultural values, beliefs, and life ways in order to provide quality health care. In other words, they demonstrate the attitudes and behaviors that enable them to effectively work with individuals with diverse

The Giger and Davidhizar cultural assessment in 1988 in response to there being only a few cultural assessment tools and increased amount of nursing students providing care to more diverse patients (Sagar, 2012, p. 57). The model has six cultural phenomena: biological variations, environmental control, time, social orientation, space, and communication. These phenomena are the basis of the model and help guide nurses through important cultural considerations.

Cultural competence is a set of behaviors, attitudes, and policies, among professionals enabling them to work competently in cross cultural events. It is the ability to provide care to patients with diverse beliefs, behaviors, and values. This also involves meeting a patient 's cultural, language, and social needs. Health care related disparities, changing demographics and globalization make it important that nurses are culturally competent in the workplace. To do this, nurses must be able to engage in cultural self assessment, value diversity, and be culturally aware. Nurses must also understand and effectively respond to cultural differences. As a culturally competent nurse, you will have a more effective interaction with patients and families.

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.

Time is an important aspect of communication. (Giger Newman & Davidhizar, 2002) Time is important to individuals and cultural beliefs. For example, there are cultural groups who pray in a certain time of day, so as a nurse you have to be aware and respect those times. Cultural groups may be past, present, or future oriented. (Giger Newman &

Throughout this paper I will be pulling information from the Giger and Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model. It is pertinent for health care workers to be familiar with this model because of the growing affects that culture has on a patient’s view of disease prevention and health restoration. This model focuses on six cultural phenomena: communication, time, space, social organization, environmental control, and biological variations. It is important for nurses to utilize this tool while performing assessments on patients because of the substantial effects that each one has on a patient’s perspective. Every person is unique and knowing that no one perspective is universal will aid the nurse in treating each patient with culturally competent care.

Religion. This model is comprised of six different main ideas, theses key points are part of all cultural groups. The first point is communication. The features that influence communication are worldwide; these features differ between cultures regarding nonverbal communication, voice quality and articulation. The second factor is space, the views of space varies in each culture. Each culture has divers views on space regarding public, personal and intimate space. The third factor of Giger and Davidhizar’s Model is social orientation. Each culture has their own beliefs on social orientation in regards to work, religion, family role and friends. The fourth factor that plays into this model is time. Time is observed, measured and appreciated differently within different cultures. The fifth factor is environmental control. Environmental control entails procedures and methods that affect and are affected by persons or the culture as a whole. The sixth and last concept of the Giger and Davidhizar’s assessment model is biological variations. Each culture differs in biological variations, for example, metabolism, body weight, color of skin, certain diseases and different body structures.