Nurses might be surprised to know how many people from the German culture are in the United States. For the health professional it is especially important to know what health care concerns might be specific to the German-American patient. They also need to be informed because of German travelers who might be visiting or temporarily living in another country and are in need of care. According to the United States Census Bureau, (2012) out of the 307,007,000 people in the United states, the majority ancestry group comprising the population is German. There are 50,708,000 people whose ancestry was of German descent, (U.S. Census Bureau, 2012). In the United States there are a lot of cultural influences that come from Germany for this reason. It is important to remember that according to the US census Bureau, (2012) 1,109,216 people in the United States who are able to speak English also speak German. The current paper will give an overview of the German culture, a presentation of the six components of the Giger and Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model, and an explanation of how the nurse can incorporate these important key points in their daily patient care to provide optimum health care for a German patient.
To understand a German's cultural differences it helps the nurse to know what their traditions, and experiences are. The majority of Germans, a large 70 percent, are members of a Christian church. A large percentage of the rest of the population of Germany are self-confessed atheists. It would not be good practice therefore, to assume that because a majority of the population of Germany is Christian that everyone from there is.
Most Germans acquire food from both supermarkets and specialty ...
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...//www.who.int/nmh/publications/ncd_profiles_report.pdf
Joos S.,(2008). The role of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in Germany - a focus group study of GPs. BMC Health Services Research,8,127–140.Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2442431/
U.S. Census Bureau, (2009) American Community Survey: People Reporting Ancestry. Retrieved from: http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0052.pdf
U.S. Census Bureau, (2009). American Community Survey, Language Spoken at Home by Ability to Speak
English for the Population 5 Years and Over. Retrieved from: http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0052.pdf
Karabudak, S., Tas, F., Basbakkal, B., (2013). Giger and Davidhizar’s Transcultural Assessment Model: A Case Study in Turkey. Health Science Journal, 7(3). Retrieved from: http://www.hsj.gr/volume7/issue3/7310.pdf
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
Goode, T. D., Dunne, M. C., & Bronheim, S. M. (2006). The evidence base for cultural and linguisitc competence in healthcare. The Commonweatlh Fund , 1-46.
In today’s world, many people assume that the latest medical technology and treatments are always the best option. However, all over the world, different techniques for curing diseases and aliments are being used. These methods fall under the category of complementary and alternative medicine.
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
For many centuries, humanity has been on an eternal quest for cures and treatments for many chronic conditions. At the present time, conventional medicine is mostly performed by doctors and other health care professionals, with the extensive use of pharmaceutical drugs, surgery or radiation treatments for disease treatment. Conversely, even though not as popular, complementary and alternative medicine and treatment options are slowly gaining popularity and becoming an addition to traditional medicine.
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.
Complementary therapies are alternatives to conventional medicine, which advance conventional health care. These therapies have been around for a while but are becoming more popular in nursing and in health care (O`Regan et al., 2010, p. 35). It is shown that...
Bentancourt et al. (2005) allows asserts that there are three distinctive reasons why cultural competency is so very important for the American healthcare system. American is composed of a very diverse population, which mean healthcare providers will continual be exposed to treating individuals from various backgrounds and from various cultures; their beliefs regarding their health or healthcare may range widely. When patients have a deficiency in the English language, proper healthcare delivery becomes increasingly more difficult as they will present symptoms in the syntax of their culture and their first language. Also, research shows the communication between the patient and their provider directly correlates to their satisfaction as well as their responsiveness or willingness to follow the health provider medical instructions; this ultimately affects the patient’s health outcome (Bentancourt et al., 2005). It’s fair to say that a successful health outcome is also contingent upon the interaction of the health provider and patient. Reports generated by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) – “Crossing the Quality Chasm and Unequal Treatment, confirms that cultural competence that focuses on the care of patient through
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.
Nursing cultural congruence is when we adapt to another’s beliefs, values and lifestyle in order to provide that individual or group better care (Andrews & Boyle, 2016). In order for a nurse to have cultural congruence, they must have some type of knowledge of the various cultural traditions and respect those cultures. By understanding the way a culture factor influences nursing care, we are able to improve our teachings, improve understanding and provide overall better care for a healthier outcome for our patients. An example of this could be having a staff member that is bilingual or teaching materials written in a different
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.
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