Introduction
Ethiopia is a country located at the horn of Africa and home to a variety of cultural and linguistically diverse population. Ethiopian history dates back 3000 years and is rich with culture and values. The World Bank (2013) statistics reports Ethiopia as the second densely populated country in Africa as well as the poorest. As such, 38.7% of Ethiopians live below poverty line and the countries per capital income is estimated to be $410 (World Bank, 2013). Still, the Ethiopians are recognized as a friendly and gracious people. In Ethiopia guests are respected and treated well. When an Ethiopian greets others it is with a smile and a warm hand shake. As well they expect to be treated with warmth and respect when they meet others. In addition Ethiopians have a hierarchal respect system in which the elderly are given the utmost respect (Center for Cultural Learning, 2009). Other cultural distinctions noticed are Ethiopians do not like to divulge their illness to others and physicians rarely tell a terminal patient that his or her illness is terminal because of the belief that sharing such devastating news would discourage the patient from the will to live. Instead the news is shared with loved ones so that they can provide emotional support (Mabsout, 2011). Lastly Ethiopia is a Black country and so there is no color distinction associated within the population. Thus an Ethiopian who migrates to America faces a variety of societal differences within the United States. In this paper the author will discuss the author’s cultural and ethnical background and discuss how the author’s cultural value influenced the nursing experience.
Authoethnography of Culture and Diversity
Cultural Background
As an Ethiopian this ...
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...sk about a patient’s cultural background and influences that may drive the care received.
Works Cited
Ethiopia (2009) Center for Intercultural Learning. Retrieved from http://www.intercultures.ca/cil-cai/ci-ic-eng.asp?iso=et
Ethiopian overview (2013). The World Bank. Retrieved from http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/ethiopia/overview
Kibour, Y. (2001). Ethiopian immigrants' racial identity attitudes and depression symptomatology: An exploratory study. Cultural Diversity And Ethnic Minority Psychology, 7(1), 47-58. doi:10.1037/1099-9809.7.1.47
Leininger’s theory of nursing: Cultural care diversity and universality (1998). Nursing Science Quarterly. 1(152) DOI: 10.1177/089431848800100408
Mabsout, R. (2011). Capability and health functioning in ethiopian households. Social Indicators Research, 101(3), 359-389. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9661-0
...the formal and explicit cognitive practice learned through educational institutions. This type of practice is focused on the professional knowledge and care that nurses are taught in a educational establishment. Nurses provide (McFarland and Wehbe-Alamah 2015, p.14).assistive and supportive care for patients, along with the proper training to improve a patient 's health, prevent illnesses, and/or help with the dying. Taking the Culture Care Theory and ethnonursing research methods helps a nurse in the transcultural field provide culturally congruent care. This gives the nurses the ability to expand their knowledges and apply or teach their discoveries when interacting with a variety of diverse cultures. The form to obtain these new discoveries is presented in the most naturalistic and open way possible to keep a comforting relationship between the nurse and patient.
Being a resident of South Carolina, African-American Culture was chosen as part of the applied learning project for the Intercultural Nursing class, because African-Americans make up more than a quarter of this state’s population. According to the 2010 United States Census Bureau, the total population for South Carolina (S.C.) is 4,625,364, with 27.9% being of African-American descent. The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding and sensitivity to issues and cultural variances or phenomena that are unique to the African-American Culture. Another goal is to identify nursing interventions that are important for the nurse to consider in caring for this population. These phenomena’s include variances in social organization, communication, space, perception of time, environmental control, and biological variations associated with the African-American culture. (Giger, 2013 and South Carolina minority, n.d.)
The diverse population that I wish to talk about is the Latino/Hispanics .Leininger’s theory of culture care diversity and universality was aimed at providing culturally competent nursing care by understand similarities and differences of various cultures.(Nies & McEwen,2011,p-219).She came up with transcultural nursing which community health nurses are expected to understand and use when interacting with the community(Hispanic population).According to Leininger’s, cultural specific is behaviors, values or way of life that is unique to a particular population or culture. On the other hand, “Culture universal” refers to behaviors, values, way of life, beliefs that are shared and similar among different population or cultures (Nies & McEwen, 2011, p-219).Cultural specifics for the Hispanic population include: the use of folk healers in time of sickness, the belief in the “hot” and “cold” theory of diseases. Culture universal for the Hispanic population include; believing in religion (most are Roman Catholics)
Issues of culture are often controversial. LaBorde (2010) has noted that culture is always a factor in conflict. Ironically, conflict can provide nurses with an excellent opportunity for developing compassion that will lead nurses unto a place of meeting in which there is a deep respect for differences and equally intentional openness to the possibility of connection. Healthcare practitioners are confronted in a daily basis with the practical manifestation of these issues. In particular, nurses are more confronted by cultural issues than the other healthcare providers because nurses spend majority of their time with patients. However, some nurses are reluctant to confront and discuss the cultural issues because of lack of knowledge in dealing with patients of diverse cultures (Tjale & Villiers, 2004).
Nurses have the obligation to be culturally competent and to provide culturally congruent patient care practices. This is importance to nursing profession and the practice implications of culturally competent care have been supported through evidence-based data. It is important to note that care is the foundation of nursing practice; and the practice
Culture, as define by Giddens, is a “pattern of shared attitudes, beliefs, self-definitions, norms, roles, and values that can occur among those who speak a particular language, or live in a defined geographical region.” (Giddens, 2013, p. 29) When constructing a nursing care plan it is important to understand the patients’ cultural background to fully understand how to care for them. Depending on what culture the individual identifies with, will direct the nurse to which nursing interventions need implemented in regards to certain aspects of care including health care practices and beliefs, how the patient views developmental and family roles, how communication occurs between patient and provider and possibly if that patient has any health
Leininger was the first nursing theorist to focus on the fact that different cultures have different caring behaviors and thus require different treatment and coined the term “culturally congruent care.” Leininger’s was a true visionary and her work developed into a movement called Transcultural Nursing. Her revolutionary work embodies the essence of holistic caring in the nursing profession and she changed the paradigm of nursing at a time when society did not celebrate cultural differences to include care that is individualized to the patient. This has influenced my personal philosophy and assisted me to be authentically present, more able to be empathetic, and considerate of my patients in order to create a healing environment, and better outcomes for the
This discussion board post is discussing cultural background of nurses and the delivery of nursing care. I will give my definition of diversity, and provide some benefits of having a diverse health care workforce. Then I will provide some barriers to having a diverse health care workforce. Lastly, I will describe how my diverse cultural background affects the care I provide.
233). She studied anthropology and applied the research findings in nursing. Later, she developed the theory of “culture care diversity and universality” from her personal experience as a nurse and other factors that influenced such as ethnic conflicts, commuting, and technology changes. It is illustrated and described by the Sunrise four-level model, and it is labeled as “an enabler” (Masters, 2014, p. 69). The first level represents a “worldview”, the second level presents “knowledge concerning individuals and groups”, the third level includes “specific features of care in the system”, and the fourth level is “specific nursing care” (Masters, 2014, p. 69; Jarošová, 2014, p. 47). The main purpose of this theory is “to generate knowledge related to the nursing care of people who value their cultural heritage” (McEwen & Wills, 2014, p. 233). The major concepts in this theory include: culture, culture care, and diversities and similarities and sub-concepts include care and caring, emic view (language expression, perceptions, beliefs, and practice), and etic view (universal language expressions beliefs and practices in regard to certain phenomena) (McEwen & Wills, 2014, p. 233). The base knowledge
Transcultural nursing requires us to care for our patients by providing culturally sensitive care over a broad spectrum of patients. The purpose of this post is to describe cultural baggage, ethnocentrism, cultural imposition, prejudice, discrimination, and cultural congruence. I will also give an example of each term to help you understand the terminology related to nursing care. I will definite cultural self-assessment and explain why it is valuable for nurses to understand what their own self-assessment means. Finally, I will describe the five steps to delivering culturally congruent nursing care and how I have applied these concepts in my nursing practice.
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 patient which in turn improves healing and health.
As a nurse strive to provide culturally sensitive care, they must recognize how their client's and their perceptions are similiar as well as different. Nurse enhance their ability to provide client-centered care by reflecting on how their beliefs and values impact the nurse-patient relationship. To provide appropriate patient care, the nurse must understand her/his culture and that of the nurse profession. Cultural biases can be particularly difficult to identify when the nurse and client are of a similar cultural backgroup. When we recognize and know a culture, we will know what is right for our patient, and thus may impose our own values on the client by assuming our values are their values. Recognizing differences a present an opportunity not only to know the other, but also to help gain a greater sense of self. In this paper, I will explain more about diversity and cultural competence in case study.
Miller, Leininger, Leuning, Pacquiao, Andrews, and Ludwig-Beyer, (2008) support that the skill of cultural competency in nursing is the ability to gather relevant cultural data on the presenting problem of the patient. This cultural assessment is defined as a "...
Leininger M. & McFarland M.R. (2002). Transcultural nursing: concepts, theories, research, and practice (3rd ed.). New York, New York: McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
Madeleine Leininger is a nurse who realized that cultural care was an important concept in nursing. In the 1950s she found that behavioral issues in children stemmed from a cultural basis due to nursing having a lack of knowledge in a variety of cultural awareness (Buschur-Betancourt, 2015). The purpose of this paper is to identify the eight reasons Madeleine Leininger states transcultural nursing is necessary. I will describe the cultural diversity and how it relates to my field of nursing. I will also provide three ways that I have incorporated culturally sensitive care toward my patients.