Guyanese Culture in Nursing
The following will discuss specifics about the Guyanese culture pertaining to medicine. The Guyanese cultural population has unique views of illness, decision making, cultural norms of communication, and a distinctive diversity that exists. The following information will be useful in nursing care of a patient from Guyana, which will result in better nursing care for a patient.
Specifics on Guyanese Culture Pertaining to Nursing
How Does the Culture Deal With Illness?
The Guyana Population’s View of Illness (Vanessa Valentino)
The Indo-Guyanese are a superstitious group that blame illness on something called the “bad eye” or “evil eye.” Maladies would begin shortly after someone visited your home or gave your infant
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In Guyana, there are several customs that many Guyanese observe when it comes to their households. First, it is appropriate to leave shoes at the front door. If necessary, bring a fresh pair of socks with you to change (World Trade Press, 2010). Also, adults do not address others by their first names until they become close friends (World Trade Press, 2010). It is important to not take offense to any of these customs. In some tribal Guyanese folklore, individuals with mental illness are thought to be monsters or to be under the possession of demons. These individuals would havoc on the village and/or kill children (World Trade Press, 2010). Many people would attack and even kill these people. The knowledge on mental illness has grown, but many people in Guyana still live in rural areas and the beliefs may still be primitive.
How Are Medical Decisions Made in the Cultural Population? (Brittany
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Since there were no doctors and medical facilities at that time, they depended on herbs to provide medicinal cures for their ailments and injuries. These practices within the Amerindian culture still exist today throughout the country and are referred to as herbal treatment, alternative medicine, or naturopathic medicine.
Africans came to Guyana in the 1400’s as part of the international slave trade; they brought along their culture, which is integrated into the existing Amerindian culture of the country. They too depended on the land for their existence and, similarly to the natives, used herbs to cure many of their illnesses. At the same time that as Africans began settling in Guyana, so did Europeans who were overseeing the slave trade. Being more advanced, Europeans brought with them a more modern approach to medicine that was also incorporated into
The use of medicinal herbs and food, dancing, music, and chanting in ceremonies and rituals, and physical manipulation are present in all three indigenous communities. Ceremonies and rituals facilitated by the traditional healers often involved everyone in the community. Indigenous African communities used herbs to prevent and treat health conditions such as viral hepatitis, malaria, and diarrhoea. Hepasor was used to treat viral hepatitis, cinchona was taken to prevent malaria and assegaai were used as an antidiarrheal, blood purifier and natural aphrodisiac.
Jamaica has about 2.8 million of residents, who are “mostly descendants of African Blacks, with minor representations from East Indian, Chinese, and European ancestries,” (Gall, 2009). In order to provide Jamaicans with the appropriate nursing care, nurses need to be aware of some important elements, as for example verbal communication, their belief, food
This essay will focus on outlining the fundamental principles of cultural diversity and how effective nursing interventions are used when providing an adequate amount of care for an individual from a culturally diverse background and how this may collide with the nursing therapeutic engagement. This essay will give the reader an insight upon culture whilst giving a significant explanation of cultural differences within a health setting. The patient’s real name will not be used and will be referred to as Mr. X. This is in line with the Nursing and midwifery Council 2008 (NMC, 2008) requirements to maintain confidentiality at all times.
A cultural assessment interview is very important when taking care of patients or their families who may be from a different culture than the nurse’s. In order to be able to better take care of a patient, we first need to know their own interpretation of disease and illness within their cultural context, values, and beliefs. Since I am Indian and my culture is a mix of the Indian cultural beliefs and my religion Islam, I was looking forward to this interview so that I am able to learn more about different cultures using my assessment.
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
Many people didn’t believe in medicine at all. The most commonly used treatment was prayer. Ordinary people relied on methods their parents and grandparents used, such as lucky charms, magic spells and herbal cures. Some of the herbal cures were quite useful.
These differences in origin accounts for diversity in socio-cultural backgrounds and nurses must develop the knowledge and the skills to engage patients from different cultures and to understand the beliefs and the values of those cultures (Jarvis, 2012). If healthcare professionals focus only on a narrowly defined biomedical approach to the treatment of disease, they will often misunderstand their patients, miss valuable diagnostic cues, and experience higher rates of patient noncompliance with therapies. Thus, it is important for a nurse to know what sociocultural background a patient is coming from in order to deliver safe an effective
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
233). She studied anthropology and applied the research findings in nursing. Later, she developed the theory of “culture care diversity and universality” from her personal experience as a nurse and other factors that influenced such as ethnic conflicts, commuting, and technology changes. It is illustrated and described by the Sunrise four-level model, and it is labeled as “an enabler” (Masters, 2014, p. 69). The first level represents a “worldview”, the second level presents “knowledge concerning individuals and groups”, the third level includes “specific features of care in the system”, and the fourth level is “specific nursing care” (Masters, 2014, p. 69; Jarošová, 2014, p. 47). The main purpose of this theory is “to generate knowledge related to the nursing care of people who value their cultural heritage” (McEwen & Wills, 2014, p. 233). The major concepts in this theory include: culture, culture care, and diversities and similarities and sub-concepts include care and caring, emic view (language expression, perceptions, beliefs, and practice), and etic view (universal language expressions beliefs and practices in regard to certain phenomena) (McEwen & Wills, 2014, p. 233). The base knowledge
In the clinical setting, nurses are believed to spend the most time with patients. This involves regularly dealing with people coming from different ethnicities and with different cultural practices and beliefs (Brown & Edwards, 2012). Given this cultural diversity, every patient may have his/her own cultural beliefs and practices regarding his/her own health and its treatment which can be similar or different to those ... ... middle of paper ... ... nternational Journal for Quality in Health Care, 8(5), 491-497.
According to the encyclopedia, culture is defined as “The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought [www.wikipedia.com].” In Trinidad these particular aspects are very distinct to the people's daily lives on the island. The diversity of actual cultures and ethnicities on the island has melted together over the centuries to create a Trinidadian culture of its own. There are influences from almost every part of the world including, India, China, the United States, Lebanon, Spain, Britian, Africa, and cultures native the Caribbean.
This assignment will look at the impact of culture in professional practice and how it will affect patients and their needs in nursing. ‘Culture’ refers to the ways in which people in a given society live together and how they communicate with each other (Hendry,2008). The aspects of culture this assignment will look at are religion, language and gender and how nurses develop cultural competency and cultural sensitivity towards their patients.
In the health profession, the diversity of people requires the ability to carefully, respectfully and effectively provide care. For this reason, it is vital that the approach of care delivered to patients depend on each individuals. This approach ensures patients receive best quality of care possible and avoid situations that can potentially prevent improvement of health status. This essay will discuss the importance of nurses to be cultural competent, possible consequences of ethnocentrism and how critical reflection can help prevent ethnocentricity.
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.
Understanding cultural differences not only improves the effectiveness of the treatment the patient receives, it is also help the nurse to prevent negliency of care. It is impostant to maintain a curiosity about each patient no matter how much we know abouth that person's culture.