Summary: Cultural Competence In Nursing

Research shows that nurses lack cultural competence in caring for minority adult with chronic pain. According to Norton and Marks-Maran (2014), nurses needs to ‘unlearn’ their own cultural value and belief system to become sensitive to the culture of the population they are working with and argued that without a sound understanding of the relationship between culture and care, healing could be impacted (Norton & Marks-Maran, 2014, p. 40). The authors also suggest that more nursing attention should focus on how culture and care are linked together to form a meaningful whole. Without a sound knowledge of cultural sensitivity and awareness cultural differences in managing the minority adults pain, healthcare delivery will be impacted and patients’

Professionals desire propel their self-awareness and how it can influence self-culture on values, beliefs, behavior which also boost their search for continue education in cultural knowledge and skills with minority groups for better healthcare delivery/outcome. The Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Organization (JCAHO), the American Nurses Association (ANA), and the American Association of College of Nursing (AACN) as cited by Hart and Mareno (2016), emphasize the need for cultural competence in terms of safety, stating that “health outcomes suffer when cultural aspect of care is lacking, or poorly understood" (Hart & Mareno, 2016, p. 122). It is apparent that these professional bodies of organizations support nurses’ education and encourage multicultural practice settings/environments to provide culturally appropriate care to all in respect of age, gender, and social economic status. According to Mossey (2011), JCAHO mandated pain assessment as the fifth vital sign in hospital settings (p. 1860). Mosey further ascertained the wide gap of racial disparity inequality in pain management and the difference in undertreatment of the minority care as a violation of humanitarian and ethical principles. Nurses are to do no harm and justice of equality is impaired because of incompetent cultural sensitivity and biases.

122). Evidence shows that different individual and ethnic background/race express pain in a variety of ways which demands the need to examine multiple influential factors of how pain is expressed to decrease the clinical disparity in the treatment of minority chronic pain. Underreport of pain intensity by minority older adults, consistent evidence of racial minority individuals pain management inadequacy, lack of clinician staff time to ask about patients’ preference, and language barrier impacting proper assessment communication are some of the factors affecting minority populations care (Mossey, 2011, p. 1860-1861; Campbell & Edwards, 2012, p. 226-227). These influential factors impair care delivery and reduce patients’ positive outcome. Statistics show eighty percent of minority patient received inadequate pain treatment: despite severe pain intensity - Hispanic and African American were likely given opioid analgesic treatment twice less than their non-Hispanic White (Mossey 2012, p.1860). Madeline Leininger as cited by Alligood (2014) encourage nurses to practice based on culture to prevent illness and promote health because human beings are inseparable from their cultural background (Alligood, 2014, p. 427). She emphasized