Cultural Differences In Health Care

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United States continues to grow on a daily basis. People from all corners of the planet have come to United States in order for a better opportunity in life. With increasing diversity, health care provider will be faced with a wide spectrum of patient from different cultural background. One specific culture to focus on is Chinese American. They are one of the leading Asian American culture residing in the United States. According to the Unites States Census Bureau, there are approximately 3.6 million Asian American residing in the United States. (U.S. Census, 2012). Therefore cultural competency is an aspect in our practice that must be honed. As Advance Practice Nurses (APN) communication and cultural competence goes hand in hand. The …show more content…

These statement gives a general insight on what the outcome might be if cultural differences affects communication. The reason I chose the Chinese American community is partly because I am part chinese, but also because the article by Minority Nurse entitled Making Their Wishes Known. This article gives us a general overview on the issue about the number of advance directive not completed specially by people of a different ethnic background. In the article a broad statement was made, “Although most Americans believe patients should have the right to direct their medical treatment at the end of life, less than a quarter of the general population has completed advance directives. And Americans of color are even less likely to have expressed their wishes in writing” (Ramsey, Stoke, Terrell, 2013). This shows that less that 25% of White Americans have advance directives, and people from different cultural background have a lesser percentage. Another point listed out by the Minority …show more content…

We have more patient interaction than any other health care providers. We are presented with two major issues in cultural competency and communication when presented with the Chinese American Culture. First as nurses, we need to be aware of cultural humility. Cultural humility is the understanding of the barriers present between our own culture and the culture of our patient’s which limit our perspective (Denisco & Baker, 2016). Understanding that our own cultural beliefs might hinder the possibility of assisting a patient is the first step in building a rapport with a patient. Setting aside our predetermined prejudice because of our cultural background is key. Once we establish that rapport, we must proceed with caution on discussing end-of-life care with patient from the Chinese American group because of the topics sensitivity. We must assess the patient's understanding of the materials being presented. Here the next issue comes into play, language barriers. As nurses we need to assess the proficiency in English when an interpreter is not in use and if English is their second language (Denisco & Baker, 2016). We cannot automatically assume that a patient understand our instruction because they are nodding their heads or saying yes. We as nurses need to assess their understanding by asking them to read a phrase in the newspaper or repeat an explanation. A use of an

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