Culturally Competent Nursing Care: Article Analysis

Guidelines for Implementing Culturally Competent Nursing Care (Douglas et al, 2014) discusses a general recommendation for executing culturally competent care within the health care field. It also touches on social justice and human rights principles. Social justice includes the belief that every individual is entitled to fair care and human rights indicates that all patients should receive safe care. Sadly, there are inequalities in our health care system due to populations having limited access to care in their communities or treatment being too costly for example. Douglas et al (2014) states that there is a need to advocate for vulnerable populations to lessen the impact of social inequalities on their health. Nurses are granted the opportunity

to be advocates for all patients in these certain situations. The guidelines discussed by Douglas et al (2014) include knowledge of cultures, education and training in culturally competent care, critical reflection, cross-cultural communication, culturally competent practice, cultural competence in health care systems and organizations, patient advocacy and empowerment, multicultural workforce, cross-cultural leadership, and evidence-based practice and research. These guidelines need to be tailored to every health care setting because no patient or facility are the same. These suggestions can really impact patient care for the better one guideline at a time.