Cultural safety was introduced by the Nursing Council of New Zealand in 1990 and since has had a profound impact on the education of nursing and delivery of healthcare (Richardson, 2010). The Nursing council defines cultural safety as “the effective nursing practice of a person or family/ whanau from another culture, and is determined by that person or family” (Nursing Council of New Zealand, 2011, p.7). Byrson’s (2010), Newson’s (2009) and Richardson’s (2010) have written articles describing their journey through understanding cultural safety. This essay summaries their articles, and draws on the key themes of cultural safety. It examines the comparrisons between Richardson (2010) and Byrson (2010) understanding of cultural safety and the …show more content…
She illuminates that cultural safety and practice needs to be re examined so health care providers get a comprehensive understanding and appreciation of the meaning. This is due to the individual interpretation of the idea and how it is perceived and applied into everyday practices. She also states that it is not just the responsibility of the nurse but the environment in which they work. For example within the vast areas of nursing, resources that enable or disable nurses to be culturally safe vary. Another key point identified is that cultural safety is just as important as clinical, medical, and technical safety. By combining these practices, it creates trust in the relationship between the nurse and patient. Trust allows patients to disclose information, whilst protecting their identity and sense of self.
This thesis provides a guide to cultural safety in healthcare practice. It is based on relationships and networks of power that produce or enable cultural safety. It provides an understanding for Registered Nurses to manage or negotiate relationships at a personal, professional or institutional level. This in turn creates an environment where the patient can experience culturally safe care (Richardson,
…show more content…
Bryson (2010) discusses if power is taken away from the patient then cultural identity is compromised, in turn leading to diminishing health and self determination. Richardson (2010) concurs and further explains that if a patient is unable to control their involvement in their treatment then they are more likely to withhold aspects of themselves in order to protect their identity and sense of self.
Another key point mentioned is the need for further education around cultural safety and how it is implemented into the health care environment (Richardson, 2010). Bryson (2010) stated that she found cultural safety difficult to understand whilst studying her Bachelor of Nursing. The complexity of the word cultural safety was misinterpreted, and she believed the concept was about ‘ethnic’ safety. After her clinical placement she realized cultural safety refers to a person as a whole. Integrating a person, ethnicity, religion, beliefs, morals and wider value and
Similar to other organizations, NAHO has also released the fact sheets and position statements regarding aboriginal health issues. In 2008, NAHO published a guide "Cultural Competency and Safety: A Guide for Health Care Administrators, Providers, Educators". The focus of this guide is on the need for cultural safety in education programs and health care. In order to improve cultural safety, education, recognizing diversity of population, historical context, and understanding health care provider and patient relationship is essential. NAHO further focuses on how the cultural safety improve the health care quality of the aboriginal by integrating client 's health beliefs into medical treatment, determining communication techniques and decision making process.(Baba,L.2013, p 11). In addition, NAHO focuses on providing culturally safety education to student nurses which emphasizes on teaching students about history of colonization and its impact on health of indigenous people rather than on increasing the knowledge of values and beliefs about aboriginal in terms of
...the formal and explicit cognitive practice learned through educational institutions. This type of practice is focused on the professional knowledge and care that nurses are taught in a educational establishment. Nurses provide (McFarland and Wehbe-Alamah 2015, p.14).assistive and supportive care for patients, along with the proper training to improve a patient 's health, prevent illnesses, and/or help with the dying. Taking the Culture Care Theory and ethnonursing research methods helps a nurse in the transcultural field provide culturally congruent care. This gives the nurses the ability to expand their knowledges and apply or teach their discoveries when interacting with a variety of diverse cultures. The form to obtain these new discoveries is presented in the most naturalistic and open way possible to keep a comforting relationship between the nurse and patient.
When working in a medical/health related field one would be able to see countless people and odd things. Some medical procedures that might seem small to one person may be complicated or even taboo to another person’s beliefs. That is why as nurses, one should be culturally competent. (Newman Giger & Davidhizar, 2008) says, “to be culturally competent one must be able to deliver meaningful care to a patient
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).
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.
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.
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.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (2011). Introduction to the Culture of Safety (Educational Standards). Retrieved from IHI open school for health professions: http://www.ihi.org
Transcultural nursing requires us to care for our patients by providing culturally sensitive care over 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 definite 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 in my nursing practice.
Polaschek. (1998). Cultural safety: a new concept in nursing people of different ethnicities. [Article]. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 27(3), 452-457. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2648.1998.00547.x
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.
Students and novices will value attentiveness and monitoring among situations in the healthcare environment. The configuration and purposes of nurses in a healthcare environment has a variety of safety cultures. Their training will teach them to be aware of different cultures and religions.
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.
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.
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.