Jewish Culture Diversity

Introduction

Research done from various sources, helped acknowledge how the needs of a specific culture and promoting culturally sensitive care is crucially important. Moreover, this research has also provided with the ability to self-reflect and realize how one’s own perceptions may or may not be similar to that of a client within the health care system. This scholarly assignment has based its coherent research information pertaining a specific cultural group, the Hebrew culture. The element discussed regarding this specific cultural group is the concerns and food preferences that the Hebrew culture greatly values as it plays a role within their practice and belief system. Furthermore, this assignment elaborates to discuss the importance

35). Cultural diversity not only encourages a multicultural environment, rather it also shows how culture affects individuals through their cultural practices and behaviors. The cultural population group chosen for this scholarly assignment is the Hebrew culture, whose fundamentals and regulations are closely tied to the Jewish religion. The Hebrew culture varies greatly when it comes to several factors such as nutrition, cultural boundaries, lifestyle practices, and communication norms. This assignment will focus on cultural diversity, more specifically on the Hebrew considerations pertaining nutrition and food preferences. Jewish individuals, specifically Orthodox Jews, consume food which strictly follow kashrut, a set of dietary laws which outline permissible and non-permissible list of food items. These laws list the foods allowed to be consumed by Hebrews, known as kosher, as they are prepared in accordance to the Jewish law and a list of non-kosher foods, which are prohibited as they do not follow the Jewish food laws. The dietary laws of the Hebrew culture enclose the following rules, “proper preparation of meat, not eating milk and meat together… [and] kashrut symbols on packaged food labels” (Noble & Rom, 2009, p. 325). Hebrew individuals believe that in order to consume meat, the blood must be completely

To ensure that the needs of a Hebrew individual pertaining kashrut dietary laws are met, nurses should make use of a cultural assessment, “[an] examination of the cultural care values, beliefs, and practices of individuals” (Potter & Perry, 2014, p. 35). Cultural assessments can be carried out at the beginning of the session when the nurse can determine the cultural aspects of the Hebrew client, “[asking] the client for any kashrut preferences” (Noble & Rom, 2009, p. 325). Some challenges that nurses may face in providing the required support for Hebrew individuals may be that the meat provided may be non-kosher if the blood is not completely drained, the utensils provided may have been used for other meat products, and the meat from the animals may not have been slaughtered according to Jewish law. However, many options are available to maintain a healthy nurse-client relationship between a Hebrew individual and a nurse. To address challenges regarding the kashrut laws, nurses can also refer to various options such as “have food brought to the hospital by family members” (Noble & Rom, 2009, p. 325), use separate utensils for meat and dairy products, and provide food pertaining kashrut symbols. With regards to the Jewish dietary law, I believe that through my own perceptions