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Cultural awareness in healthcare essay
Culture, Health Promotion, and Cultural Competence
Cultural considerations in health care
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Abstract This paper explores the concept of culture, its definitions, and its application to nursing and health care. Culture is a group's customs, habits, morals, and shared beliefs. The understanding of culture, not only as a concept, but how it relates to health care is imperative for providers. The lack of cultural awareness, or competency, leads to miscommunication, inadequacy of care, and health disparities among individuals and groups. Jehovah’s Witness’ are one group of individuals with defined morals and beliefs that can be at odds with routine health care: they do not accept most blood products. Understanding how culture can impact a patient, their needs, and beliefs can improve patient outcomes and improve satisfaction rates. Keywords: culture, competence, nursing Culture Concept Analysis Over the years, the word culture has taken on numerous definitions. Culture was first described in the eighteenth century as the cultivation of the soil to help grow …show more content…
“An individual’s culture shapes how he or she understands, seeks, reacts to, and expresses feelings about health care throughout the continuum of wellness, including presickness, sickness, and recovery” (Marzilli, 2014, p. 230). Understanding how culture can impact a patient, their needs, and beliefs can improve patient outcomes and improve satisfaction rates. References Dreher, M. and MacNaughton, N. (2002). Cultural competence in nursing: Foundation or fallacy?. Nursing Outlook, 50(5), pp.181-186. Marion, L., Douglas, M., Lavin, M., Barr, N., Gazaway, S., Thomas, L. and Bickford, C. (2016). Implementing the New ANA Standard 8: Culturally Congruent Practice. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 22(1). Marzilli, C. (2014). Concept Analysis of Culture Applied to Nursing. Creative Nursing, 20(4),
The term culture is defined as “the thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of racial, ethnic, religious, or social groups” (Potter & Perry, 2013). With the increase of culturally diverse populations in the United States, it is important for nurses to practice cultural competence. Cultural competence is the ability to acquire specific behaviors, skills, attitudes, and policies in a system that permits “effective work in a cross-cultural setting” (OMH, 2013). Being culturally competent is essential because nurses who acknowledges and respects a patient’s health beliefs and practices are more likely to have positive health outcomes (OMH, 2012). Every culture has certain views and attitudes concerning health. The Jewish (also referred to as Jews), in particular, have intriguing health practices and beliefs that health care providers need to be aware of.
Cultural and social structure dimensions include factors related to religion, social structure, political/legal concerns, economics, educational patterns, the use of technologies, values within a cultural context. Culturally competent nursing care can only occur when the client’s beliefs and values are thoughtfully and skillfully
Culture care is grounded within one’s worldview, which is shape by social structure factors such as religion, economics, cultural values, environmental context, ethnohistory, and language (Alligood, 2014; Sitzman & Eichelberger, 2015). Moreover, culture care share similarities and differences related to health and well-being, how individual deal with disability and death, as well as, when to seek relief from illnesses or distress. As culture plays a vital role in health care seeking habits and decision making, it is imperative for nurses to fully understand cultural knowledge. With increase cultural knowledge, nurses are better able to implement care plans that are beneficial to the patient with respect to their beliefs, values, and cultural
Jean Giddens (2013) defines culture as “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). A person’s culture influences every aspect that person’s life. Beliefs affected by culture include how someone interacts within the family, how to raise children, the types of foods eaten, the style of clothes chosen, which religion is practiced, and the style of communication (including verbal, and body language, slang used etc.) (Giddens, 2013). In addition to these beliefs, health care practices are also affected by culture. The cause
An individual’s culture and belief may significantly impact the type of services they require. In addition, it may affect the time, place, and method in the delivery of health care
There are cultures that have very different views on things such as family dynamics and health care than what I’m used to. For example, there are some cultures that do not believe in seeking healthcare when they are ill or receiving medications or blood if needed. However, my family always believed in taking us to the doctor and taking medications when we were ill. There are also some cultures that have very large families that they are very close to however I always had a small close-knit family. I am able to see how these different scenarios could affect the nursing care provided by assuming that other people and families have the same beliefs that my family had growing up. However, this is why it is important to ask questions and do research about a particular culture before making assumptions. I also believe it is very important to avoid assuming that all cultures are the same just because they are of a certain culture or ethnicity. Beliefs and rituals can differ amongst people of the same community. Therefore, it is essential to get to know your patients and have an understanding of their beliefs as an
Cultural competence like so many other social constructs has been defined in various ways. One particular definition as determined by the Office of Minority Health states cultural competence is a set of behaviors, attitudes, and policies that are systematically exercised by health care professionals which enables the ability to effectively work among and within cross-cultural situations (Harris, 2010). Betancourt (2005) implied cultural competence is starting to be seen as a real strategy to help with improving healthcare quality and eliminating the injustices pertaining to healthcare delivery and healthcare access. This appeal is gaining favor from healthcare policy makers, providers, insurers and
A nurse can improve his or her direct patient care by integrating cultural competence into their method of care. The first step to developing cultural sensitivity is to examine and know oneself. One way of developing sensitivity is to assess, where one stands, in regards to culture. There are cultural assessment strategies for nurses and healthcare workers available. Campinha-Bacote, (2002) developed the Model of Cultural Competence, which is a series of questions that help to determine if a nurse is open to enhancing their cultural knowledge. Once determined if the desire is there, other assessments are be taken into consideration in...
Transcultural nursing requires us to care for our patients by providing culturally sensitive care to 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 define 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 to my nursing practice.
As nurses entering the medical field understanding the culture of our patients is crucial to proper care. Each culture has their own set of beliefs and values that are shared among groups of people which influences personality, language, lifestyles, house hold, level modesty, social standings, foods, health treatment and identity. Culture affects how people view health and illness; dictating when, where and what type of medical treatment they will receive and who will be their care provider.
Cultural competence for advanced practice nurses is defined as the willingness or the desire to understand another person’s culture, the ability to learn about a diverse cultural belief systems, and to work effectively as a healthcare professional understanding the dynamics of the patient’s culture as it relates to their relationships, care, and overall health. Awareness of one’s own culture, along with the understanding of other cultures, and how that relates to nursing care is essential to improve outcomes for patients (Kardong-Edgren et al., 2010). This paper will review a personal account of my cultural awareness and cultural beliefs. Cultural competence will be discussed as it relates to nursing theory and application
Researching and developing awareness of different cultures beliefs, values, and practice can help aid with providing cultural competent care. As a healthcare professional, this is an essential competent for caring for patient of different ethnicity group. “Organizations and individuals who understand their clients’ cultural values, beliefs, and practices are in a better position to be co-participants with their clients in providing culturally acceptable care” (Purnell & Paulanka, 2008, p. 2). During the beginning of this course, I had taken a cultural competency quiz regarding my responses to the patient cultural values and belief practices. I will later discuss how my results from the cultural competency quiz changed
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 "...
Lipson, J.G. & Dubble, S.L. (Eds). (2007). Culture & clinical care. San Francisco, California: The Regents, University of California.
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.