The Importance Of A Culturally Safe Practice Essay

“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

Practicing cultural safety requires nurses to have undertaken personal reflection of their own cultural identity. This enables them to recognise the impact that their personal culture has on their professional practice (Cox & Taua, 2013). This personal reflection should allow the nurse to provide effective care to an individual or family from a different culture (Cox & Taua, 2013). In this essay I will reflect upon two of my own cultural groupings, discuss the concept of “other”, the relevance of cultural safety to nursing practice and how I might care for someone who is culturally different from myself.

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 &

Cultural safety is a concept that is integral to providing best care to patients in nursing practice. The CRNBC defines cultural safety as a process requiring RNs to reflect on their cultural identity, and develop their practice in a way that allows them to affirm the culture of their patients; cultural unsafety can be defined as any actions which demean, diminish, or disempower the cultural identity and well-being of people; this also addresses the dynamics of the power relationship between the Health Care Provider and the patient (p17). Although an environment of cultural safety is a standard that we are held to as nurses, this ideal is not always reached. In this paper I will discuss one such incidence, as well as some of the changes that will assist myself as a nurse, as well as others members of the healthcare team to create an environment of cultural safety.

The outcome of cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity is cultural safety (Berg, 2010). In practicing cultural safety, it is not really expected that health care workers will know all cultures; it is acknowledging and respecting people regardless of their differences and beliefs (Hughes & Farrow, 2006). Moreover, nurses and other health professionals create cultural safe practice when the patients feel safe, respected and understood (Skellet, 2012), as well as if there is a shared understanding and acknowledgement of the unique identity and diversity. Health workers should always consider the cultural and historical background of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, because practicing cultural safety is significant to

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).

As nurses, we adjust our care accordingly to each patient. It is vital that we not only assess our patients physically, but assess all aspects of their lives, including their cultures. For this paper I will discuss the key components of a comprehensive cultural assessment. I will also choose two of the key components and discuss my own culture and how it affects my attitude to culturally diverse care. Last, I will identify two nursing diagnoses that would relate to a patient with a culture other than my own, as well as give proper interventions.

If we are to fix anything we need to have cultural knowledge and a lack of cultural knowledge stand in the way of competence (Hunt, R. 2009, p.60). Nursing care makes the cross over from the healthcare system to cultural differences or folk systems that consists or lacks factors such as; technological, religious, kinship and social, political, economic, and educational factors and as a nurse we need to balance these factors (Nies, M. A., & McEwen, M. 2015, p. 223-224). Basically we assimilate to our environment to acquire new knowledge and skills where we can then promote accommodation that takes over and becomes second nature to our practice (Blais, K., & Hayes, J. S. 2011, p. 141). If we can do these things we are moving in the right direction to care for any client who walks through our doors. We have so many resources to rely on, use

The attitudes and actions of these nurses have potentially created barriers to the delivery of culturally safe care to the man and the other patients in the ward. Cultural safety, in nursing, is defined, by the Nursing Council of New Zealand [NCNZ], (2011) as the effective nursing practice of a person or family, from another culture, that is determined by that person or family. Culture may include, but is not limited to: Age, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, ethnicity, religion or spiritual beliefs, and disability. Cultural safety was initially based on the Treaty of

Nursing Council New Zealand, Competency 1.5, Indicator 1 (NCNZ, 2007) - Applies the principles of cultural safety in own nursing practice was met by trying our best to ensure Max was always kept covered to give him privacy and comfort while we waited for paramedics to arrive in order to help keep him calm. Also by giving Max a pillow to rest his head and keep him comfortable helped to show how met this Nursing Council competency on cultural safety was met. Respecting the client’s privacy decreases the patient’s emotional discomfort during personal cares; this can be done by draping something over the client to ensure privacy and warmth (Brookside Associates, 2007).

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.

Nursing theory is foundational to nursing practice; however, there exists a reciprocal relationship between practice and theory. Through examining nursing theory, the nurse can make better-informed decisions about the patient’s care. In addition, the theory will influence the care for future patients as well. One theorist that changed the landscape of nursing is Madeleine Leininger. Her culture care theory changed the dialogue of healthcare regarding care. This paper will discuss the importance of theory in nursing theory. Next, a summary of Leininger’s theory will precede a discussion about how the theory will be applied in a nursing context. Finally, the correlation between Leininger’s theory and the practice of a nurse practitioner will ensue. Her culture care theory will inform the practice of a nurse practitioner and how culturally competent care will be given.

The concept of organizational cultural safety originally emerged in late 80s as a framework for the delivery of more appropriate health services for the Maori people in New Zealand (Taylor and Guerin, 2010, p. 14-15). However the concept is not limited to the indigenous people and has been recognized to be equally useful in all types of health settings and other workplaces.