More handpicked essays just for you.
Patient centred approach advantages and disadvantages
Cultural competency strength and weakness
Cultural competency strength and weakness
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
1. How does culture influence health? Give some examples of ethnic and cultural influences on the health of individuals or populations. 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. Religion is a significant aspect of culture that must be understood and respected. Through understanding the differences in peoples cultures, a nurse who is tending to a patient who’s beliefs differ from his or her own can appropriately adjust care to respect the patient’s beliefs and …show more content…
Cultural blindness can lead to misconceptions and the inability to treat patients efficiently. Culture, religion, beliefs, values, social economic standings, education, mentality, morals, and treatment are all different from person to person, community, and groups. These barriers can be overcome by treating each patient as a unique individual and seeking to learn about cultural beliefs and differences, without reservations or pre-judgments but with an open and willing mind. These inhibiting barriers can be crossed through acceptance and commonality can be established. Through Patient-centered communication and attentiveness to the patients’ interpretation, discussion of lifestyle and treatment choices in an open and non-judgmental manner, and understanding of patient views, concerns and information needs can lead to cultural sensitivity and appreciation (Dean, R,
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
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
Going to a different country or area of the world can open up anybody’s eyes to see that culture makes a huge impact on the understanding and practices of healthcare that seem to be so common to other areas of the world. When a person lives in one country their whole life, that person may not realize how different the life they live is from someone in a foreign country. If a person is going to receive treatment from someone with a different cultural background, they should be expected to get treatment to respects their own culture. Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences having such a diverse variety of students has their own cultural competency definition that states “effectively and comfortably communicate across cultures with patients of differing backgrounds, taking into account aspects of trust in order to adopt mutually acceptable objectives and measures”. In the book Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa by Katherine Dettwyler, the issue of culture and healthcare are greatly prevalent. Katherine Dettwyler herself goes to West Africa as an anthropologist and her horizons are broadened when during her research she comes in contact with how much culture has an impact on healthcare and everyday life.
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
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
Having cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity and cultural competence is very relevant as a professional nurse. There are many different models used for cultural assessments that were created by nurses. The Giger and Davidhizar’s Model of transcultural nursing outlines six factors that is useful in cultural assessment. This Model centers on patient’s health beliefs and health traditions. There is key information needed to perform an adequate cultural assessment in diverse cultures. There are diverse cultures and ethnicities found in my local community. The Russian community is prevenient in my community and has their own beliefs, health issues and health behaviors.
Cultural genograms are useful in expanding one’s awareness of the effects of culture on an individual. In turn, this can aid in understanding how other people are a product of his or her culture as well. Cultural genograms are a beneficial tool in providing culturally competent care in nursing. It is essential to remember that there is not an individual culture that is considered to be correct or the standard, but that every culture has a unique view on practices in life. Being culturally sensitive is a critical element in providing culturally competent care.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Cultural competence can be defined as using the ability of one’s awareness, attitude, knowledge and skill to effectively interact with a patient’s many cultural differences. Madeline Leininger, a pioneer on transcultural nursing describes it this way; “a formal area of study and practice focused on comparative human-care differences and similarities of the beliefs, values and patterned lifeways of cultures to provide culturally congruent, meaningful, and beneficial health care to people” (Barker, 2009, p. 498). The importance of cultural diversity in healthcare allows for the delivery of appropriate cultural autonomy. Showing respect for others will lead to trust between nurse and patient which in turn improves healing and health.
Characteristics can be as diverse as ethnic background, language spoken, gender status, physical appearance, race, and religion to name a few. Migration from various countries is creating a diverse population with different cultures and languages within the United States. Due to these cultural differences and lack of knowledge, disparities are increasing. Studies have shown that both language barriers and lack of cultural customs can hinder the services provided to the patient by the healthcare worker (Renzaho, Romios, Crock, & Sonderlund, 2013). This study provided a positive outcome when communication and cultural mutual understanding took place and patients had a more positive health outcome. It is very important that nurses are diversified in various cultures in order to better care for our patients. According to Mareno and Hart (2014), cultural competency has become one of the core values being taught in nursing programs. Their study showed that the perceived level of cultural awareness and skills among the nurses provided was low. Awareness and knowledge levels increased with higher education. It was highly recommended that self-awareness exercises be incorporated into the nursing course and continued to be addressed during the remaining curriculum until