Nurses today are challenged to deliver culturally competent care to a growing diverse population. In the United States, minorities and refugees occupy one third of the population, and are expected to increase by 54%, by 2050 (Hart & Moreno, 2015). Hospitals have begun making delivering culturally competent care a priority initiative. It has become an ongoing process amongst nurses to incorporate not only the nurse’s knowledge, but also the skills needed to work with these diverse populations (Hart & Moreno, 2013). In order to deliver culturally competent care, the barriers must be addressed.
Nursing Practice Changes with Delivering Culturally Competent Care
The barriers have been identified as the lack of knowledge, time management, money, and language barriers (Mixer 2010). Hart & Moreno (2013) discuss in order for nurses to provide culturally competent care, the nurse must focus on the family’s culture differences, and incorporate their beliefs into their plan of care. The current literature indicates nurses and staff are not adequately taught to deliver culturally competent care. When nurses were asked what barriers they face, they spoke about the lack of resources to learn and provide culturally competent care, money for training, and lack of training (Hart & Moreno, 2013). Hart & Moreno (2013) also discussed the time it takes, for the nurses to educate themselves about the different cultures, plus the time to offer such care.
Nurses and staff also worry if you can teach culture sensitivity, or if it is an inherited trait. The desire comes from nurses’ and their motivation to learn about different cultures, their traditions, and beliefs. Researchers believe delivering culturally comptant care builds a foundational model...
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...wers. Supportive relationships allows for strong open lines of communication, new learning opportunities, growth, and sharing of ideas (2010). Inspirational motivation allows leaders to ensure the followers develop they same passion and motivation to fulfill goals, and feel valued. The leader should set clear goals and expectations. “The team should be on the same level and put forth equal amount of dedication while expressing passion and enthusiasm in order to meet outlined goals” (Northouse, 2010, p. 202.). Idealized influence entails leaders leading by setting an example, which is done through observation of practices. Serving as a role model, followers trust and respect the leader. Transformational leadership allows for motivation, and positive morale. It stimulates nurses and it can help achieve extraordinary goals, and outcomes (2010).
Leadership Attributes
Immigration and the minority population is increasing each and every year. With a growing ethnically diverse population, it is vital that nurses are sufficiently equipped for and able to work with patients in a way that identifies and respects their diversity.
I know numerous East Africans and other minorities who fear and put off going to the hospital or clinic simply because they feel no one truly understands them on a more personal level and that their needs can’t and won’t be met entirely. According to the American Medical Association over 55% of health care providers agreed that, “minority patients generally receive lower quality health care” due to the lack of cultural competence. Those of different cultural backgrounds feel uneasy due to communication barriers and the lack of cultural competency amongst some health care providers. As a Somali-speaking nurse, I feel Somali patients, along with those of varying cultural backgrounds would be able to establish that sense of ease that’s needed when entering a health care facility or without having to feel the shame of having an interpreter hear about their personal health issues. According to Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence,
Cultural Competency is fundamentally linked with the principles of social justice and human rights because it provides the nurses with the opportunity to develop interpersonal skills to provide equal care despite one’s cultural background. However, using the principles of social justice and human rights to educate nurses allows them to learn how to negotiate cultural differences. Removing their own cultural filters, and seeing events through the eyes of those who are culturally different accomplish this. An embedded experience, in which nurses interact with various cultures, would encourage them to adopt Cultural Competency knowledge (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 2008).
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.
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.
Issues of culture are often controversial. LaBorde (2010) has noted that culture is always a factor in conflict. Ironically, conflict can provide nurses with an excellent opportunity for developing compassion that will lead nurses unto a place of meeting in which there is a deep respect for differences and equally intentional openness to the possibility of connection. Healthcare practitioners are confronted in a daily basis with the practical manifestation of these issues. In particular, nurses are more confronted by cultural issues than the other healthcare providers because nurses spend majority of their time with patients. However, some nurses are reluctant to confront and discuss the cultural issues because of lack of knowledge in dealing with patients of diverse cultures (Tjale & Villiers, 2004).
Today when people move across continents with the help of technology their culture and heritage moves along with them. Almost each and every continent is populated with people from different nations who have diverse traditions and cultures. Thus knowledge of health traditions and culture plays a vital role in nursing. People from different cultures have a unique view on health and illness. Culture-specific care is a vital skill to the modern nurse, as the United States continues to consist of many immigrants who have become assimilated into one culture. I interviewed three families of different cultures: - Indian (my culture), Hispanic and Chinese. Let us see the differences in health traditions between these cultures.
Providing culturally competent care is a vital responsibility of a nurse’s role in healthcare. “Culturally competent care means conveying acceptance of the patient’s health beliefs while sharing information, encouraging self-efficiency, and strengthening the patients coping resources” (Giddens, 2013). Competence is achieved through and ongoing process of understanding another culture and learning to accept and respect the differences.
Over the last several weeks we have learned that we live in a culturally diverse world. We have learned that it is important to acknowledge our own cultural values and beliefs while also realizing that others around us have their own beliefs. In order to provide culturally sensitive care, we must also realize the meaning of diversity and how it can also relate to the health care workforce. The purpose of this post is to define what diversity means to me. I will describe what some of the benefits of having a diverse health care workforce is while acknowledging that this could also provide some barriers in the nursing profession. I will conclude by considering my own diverse cultural background and experiences and how it might relate to the
As a primary care nurse practitioner, my cultural bias could affect to some extent on delivering care to these populations, both good and bad. But, understanding about cultures and beliefs and learning to deliver a culture sensitive care every day is one of the ways I can become more effective. In addition, the suicidal event of my brother- in- law gave me the strength to raise an awareness of the risks related to mental diseases and the importance of early
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.
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 "...
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.
Madeleine Leininger is a nurse who realized that cultural care was an important concept in nursing. In the 1950s she found that behavioral issues in children stemmed from a cultural basis due to nursing having a lack of knowledge in a variety of cultural awareness (Buschur-Betancourt, 2015). The purpose of this paper is to identify the eight reasons Madeleine Leininger states transcultural nursing is necessary. I will describe the cultural diversity and how it relates to my field of nursing. I will also provide three ways that I have incorporated culturally sensitive care toward my patients.