Every day nurses interact with numerous people; the most important of these are their patients. For this interaction to be meaningful and have a positive impact on the health outcomes of the patient, the nurse needs to build interpersonal connections with the patient to form a therapeutic relationship. The nurse also needs to be aware of the patient’s culture and practice in a culturally safe way when establishing this relationship. In this essay the main characteristics of both interpersonal connectedness and the therapeutic relationship will be described using relevant literature. It will then go on to describe culture and cultural differences and then finally discuss how the cultural difference of the patient speaking a different …show more content…
Every single person has a culture, which is developed throughout their life. Culture is passed on from generation to generation; however it is never static as it is always changing and evolving to the individual’s experiences (Munoz & Luckmann, 2005). In nursing, nurses need to be aware of their own culture so that they can recognise and accept people from other cultures. This is important to help build a respectful therapeutic relationship (Stein-Parbury, 2009). Nurses who understand their own and others’ cultures are more likely to recognise differences within any cultural group. Within a large cultural group there can be numerous variations as each person in a same culture does not believe in or do the same thing (Arnold & Boggs, 2011). To the Nursing Council of New Zealand “culture includes, but is not restricted to, age or generation; gender; sexual orientation; occupation and socioeconomic status; ethnic origin or migrant experience; religious or spiritual beliefs; and disability” (Nursing Council of New Zealand, 2009, p. 7).
Language is the basic means of human communication. It is used by every culture to share information, negotiate and direct others as well as to express emotions and ideas. Therefore, a language barrier between the nurse and patient can be a serious threat to transcultural communication (Munoz & Luckmann, 2008). When caring for a non-English speaking patient, a medical interpreter is essential for providing
“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,
The framework for creating a therapeutic relationship is built on the nurse’s ability to show empathy towards the client. Empathy is being able to put oneself in the patient’s shoes, to feel the same things they feel
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
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.
Nurses have the responsibility of caring for a diverse group of people. These people come from different cultures, races, and religious backgrounds. Religion plays a major role in patient care and has for many years. Cultural competency is a major component of nursing practices. Understanding culture is imperative in knowing what is important to a patient and how to address his or her healthcare needs. Understanding culture is also important when determining what suggestions to make about interventions for treatment. Culture is defined as many people interacting and sharing with one another their patterns of behavior, beliefs and values (Burkhardt, G. & Nathaniel, A., 2014).
Teaching and learning methodologies, principals, styles or approaches are perhaps the most challenging for nurses. Not only are nurses diverse in culture, sex, age, socioeconomic and religion, we are also part of a discipline that is diverse in practice. It is necessary to acknowledge our own beliefs, biases as it relates to other culture groups so that we don’t unintentionally create barriers to learning.
As a nurse, communication is an essential and important factor to building a therapeutic relationship between a nurse and patient as it is the difference between average and excellent nursing care, as it helps maintain a good quality of life and allows nurses’ and patients to interact and provide comfort when needed. The importance of good communication can become apparent with patients especially when they are in the hospital, as it helps the nurses build a positive relationship with patients and helps overcome barriers including physical, psychological and social. A therapeutic relationship is built on many factors which include both verbal and non-verbal communication which helps maintains the relationship and strengthens it due to the positive impact it has not only on the patient’s experience but also the nurse’s.
In this essay, I am going to give a structured reflective account on the development of a therapeutic relationship with a client on one of my clinical placements as part of my training as a student nurse. I will be using a reflective model which explores the processes involved in developing and maintaining such relationships bearing in mind theoretical knowledge and how it applies to this clinical experience. Jasper (2003) describes reflective practice as one of the ways that professionals learn from experience in order to understand and develop their practice. As a trainee health care professional, I have learnt the importance of reflection in
A nurse-patient relationship is the basic requirements in all practice settings. Its usage is to manage communication between an organization and a public while maintaining boundaries in the therapeutic relationship. Based on Peplau’s interpersonal theory, communication takes place in a nurse-client relationship where therapeutic process occurs involving complex factors such as environment, attitudes, practices, and beliefs in the dominant culture (seu.edu, 2015). The actions of each person in a nurse-patient relationship is measured on the collaboration of their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Nurse’s work to attain, maintain, and restore the patient’s health until patient have fulfilled the health care needs. Patient must be guided and provided a well-respected environment until a better health and specific needs are fully considered in the relationship. In this kind of setting, nurse’s must create relationship with patients by communicating receptivity, assimilating the concepts of empathy, trust, genuineness, respect, and confidentiality into their interactions.
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
It is true that nurses are extremely preoccupied on educating their patients and their families. As you mentioned, nurses should also be focused on their culture-related education. In order to provide the best care to our diverse patients, we (as nurses) ought to have a basic understanding of the meaning of culture in certain subpopulation. Some people continue to embrace their own culture and many individuals assimilate to the mainstream ideas, values, and beliefs.
The scenario can be dissected at three different levels of inquiry: intrapersonal, interpersonal and contextual level. Understanding different range of perspectives can assist in creating a holistic care plan for the patient. At an intrapersonal level, one begins to communicate within themselves (Kozier et al., 2017). From the nurse’s point of view, they acknowledge the client’s inability to speak English and the need for an interpreter. At the same time, they know that they must assess for signs of inflammation and pain prior to applying medications. Proximally viewing the situation, the nurse feels the need to complete an assessment for the comfort of the client and to fulfill their task. However, as the interpreter walks into the scene and stops the nurse, the nurse may feel accused and decides to change their priority to solve the miscommunication in order to provide safe care to the client.