My Culture Essay

Culture is an extremely important part of many people’s existence. Culture helps individuals find an identity and influences their daily lives. However, with culture come misconceptions about groups of people. Understanding and respecting each other’s culture and beliefs are essential to a career in nursing. A nurse interacts with many individuals that come from different cultures. Being able to provide culturally competent care is vital. To demonstrate the power of culture, I am going to reflect and analysis my cultural beliefs.

Cultural Identity:

I identify with multiple cultures such as: being a Catholic, Caucasian, female, nursing student. However, the two main cultures that are prominent in my daily life; is my ethnicity as well as my

Our primary heritage is from Slovenia and Germany, therefore, I have grown up in a European background. Both of these European cultures have influenced me to be the best I can be; hence organization, self-maintenance, self-perseverance are my most prevalent attributes. In regards to lifestyle; my mother is a dietitian, hence, I have grown up in a culture of maintaining a healthy lifestyle and diet. My family has taught me to strive for good verbal and non-verbal communication skills; as well as being blunt, yet friendly towards others. The saying “treat others the way you would want to be treated”, is important here. However, I do have the tendency to be judgmental towards myself as well as others. This trait is connected to the European culture of being a perfectionist. This leads into my family role of being the peace maker; this could be because I am the middle child. Interestingly enough, in the career of nursing; the nurse acts as the middle man between the doctor and the patient. As a future nurse, my views surrounding birth and death practices are similar. I believe it is the person’s life, therefore, it’s their right to choose how they decided to have children and their end of life care. If I were the patient, the nurse should respect and acknowledge my culture to provide culturally competent care. The nurse could achieve this by asking about my cultural preferences. This is extremely important because as the patient, one can feel powerless. Respecting and acknowledging one’s culture, would give the patient a sense of power. Therefore, creating trust between the patient and the