Cultural Congruence In Nursing Practice

Cultural Diversity and its Influence on Nursing Practice In this discussion board assignment, I will define a variety of terms dealing with the subject of culture diversity, as well as give real life examples from my own experiences in my nursing practice. I will also explain the five steps in the process for delivering culturally congruent nursing care. The first term is cultural baggage. Cultural baggage is how a person’s own culture subconsciously influences their actions, opinions, and views (Andrews & Boyle, 2016). An example of cultural baggage from my own nursing practice would be experiencing workplace bullying between nurses. In the nursing culture, unfortunately some more experienced nurses tend to bully the newer nurses. I experienced this first hand during my first job out of nursing school. It is important though to be aware of this cultural baggage, and not let it affect the way I now treat newer nurses. Ethnocentrism, is the belief that the culture or group that an individual identifies is the best (Andrews & Boyle, 2016). An example of this, would be the belief that western medicine is superior to all other

I saw examples of this many times when I worked with critically ill patients. It was important to be aware and respectful of our patient’s culture in order to provide the best care for the patient and his or her family. A couple examples of this were to allow larger groups in a room for prayer, and special food to be brought in by the family. The last term to define, is cultural self-assessment. A cultural self-assessment examines your own culture, set of beliefs, and views (Andrews & Boyle, 2016). This self-assessment is important because you are able to identify areas that may need improvement, so that you are able to provide the best care for a very culturally diverse