What is Culture - Essay Example

What is Culture? Culture would be defined as common heritage or set of beliefs. (http://www.nlbha.org/PDFs/CulturePlanning.pdf)Culture would be the main factor that would be determining how people perceive and receive pain. The cultural traditions and norms would be determining the way the people would be learning to react to pain. The pain would be taking on the personal belief and past experience that would be determining the perception of pain. (Wood, J 2004, p10-41) There has been a stereotype that would be saying a culture would be good and a culture would not be good when it comes to pain management. The nurses should be warm and pleasant and very attentive when treating patients. (http://socialworks.duhs.duke.eu/wysiwyg/downloads/culture_and_trauma_brief_v2n3_latinohispanicchildren.pdf) Emotive persons would be more expressive of their pain and they would be willing to share their pain with nurses. (Trudgen, R & Mala2000, p 97-112) They would be more open about their discomforts and that would be helping the treatment process. The culturally diverse healthcare professionals should be able to understand the culture of the patient. Culture could be defined as body of learned behaviors and that has been passed by role modeling and that has been used to interpret social culture and experience. Culture has been shaping individual behavior, emotional and social response within the environment and there would be subgroups within the society and sub culture and that would be defining themselves by social norms that would be deviating and that would be from main stream norm. There has been variation in acceptable behavior, speech and dress that would be setting the culture apart. Variations would be existing between urban and rural populations that would be given in a culture and difference between cultures in males and females and culture has been passed by role modeling. The relation between teaching and learning in culture would be understood in detail and that would mean that there would be difference in cultures that would be affecting the treatment process. The values of culture should be meeting with expectations of family and social needs and that would be playing a beneficial role in some persons. The cultural response to health would be determined by cases of gender, race and ethnicity. An individual's location at the intersection of gender, race and ethnicity, acculturation, and socioeconomic status plays a key role in shaping his or her cultural responses to health. The health care providers would be able to meet the cultural patterns of health problems within the families.The western model of informing about treatment process would not be appreciated in certain cultures like Indian and these has to be noted by the nurses. (http://www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/Asian_Culture_Brief__India.pdf) At other times, they would need to provide alternative sources of support and information when cultural tensions may leave individuals vulnerable to health risks as a result of lack of informal social supports. The cultural expectations and beliefs of the family have to be met by the health professionals and there are certain cultural beliefs that could be causing tension on the minds of the people. The case study in detail You are approached by the grandparents of a 16 year old Matilide.The elderly grandparents have been coming from Eastern Europe. The main problems that has been faced by the grandparents has been that the English has been heavily accented. That had led to the good English skills and they have been worried about Matilide.The grandparents has not able to meet the granddaughter due to the political considerations and there has been confusion on the minds of grandparents. How to identify the cultural factors in the family and how to take the therapeutic process forward Culture has been one of the factors influencing nursing services, and it has been argued that nurses should be competent in cultural issues and that would be the main factor in determining the cultural issues. The patients would be having differences in mood conditions like mood could be elevated or mood could be depressed and both these periods would be separated by period of mood that would be normal. This could be stated as a condition in which the condition or illness that would be characterized by frequent changes in the mood. The disorder would be affecting the lives of other family members negatively and that could include grandparents also. Nursing care plans are meant for meeting the clinical nursing situation. The nursing care plans are usually organized to meet the nursing process that has happened after the diagnosis has been met. The nursing plans are usually based on the psychiatric disorder, clinical behaviour and clinical problems. The knowledge about the patient about the illness should be understood in detail. The family should be first taught about the features of counselling session and there should be goal in counseling and what has to be achieved by treatment. The process should be stating that the goals should be achievable and the goals and experiments would give therapy a direction. The experiments would be done in a case to case basis. It has stated that the family should have been more supportive of l patients to help them out but if not done counseling should be done.The counselling on the female patient would be done by female nurses under the supervision of female doctors and that would be putting less pressure on the family. The reason for this is that there would be certain cultural implications that would be affecting the family and the concerned person. The cultural content of psychiatric diagnosis would be including the, well-recognized cultural variables like adequate family data, explanatory models, and strengths and weaknesses of every individual patient and that would be determining the treatment process.( Australian Institute of Welfare and Health 2004,p.195-206) Cultural background would be determining the patient attitude to medical treatment and there are specific culture bound programmes and that would mean the presentation styles and the nurses should be understanding about the culture and immigration problems that could determine the treatment process. The nurses understanding of the culture would be effectively influencing the treatment process and that could be said as a counselling session. (Thomson, N (ed.) 2003, p.488-501) The family has to be well seated in a comfortable chair with a suitable space between family and the counselor. They would be facing each other and there has to be some picture on the wall, a small coffee table, and the table should be having phone, tissue papers and a jug of water on top. (Potter & Perry (Eds) 2005, p.122-142)The door has to be kept closed after the family has entered and they should feel comfortable to speak clearly to the counselor without fear of being overheard by others. The overall set up of the office should be making the family comfortable and relaxed and the room should be set up done in accordance with a description that suggests that special purpose counselling rooms would be making clients feel comfortable in a counselling context. The counselor should be initiating the rapport process with non threatening questions like asking the family back ground and there should be a quick discussion on minor issues like the weather, work and any other problems. The family should be feeling relaxed and confident as the conversation progresses as non threatening conversation would be having an emotional impact on family. There should be more open ended questions and these questions would be more relaxed and that should not be tension creating. The gender issues that has to be identified with the treatment process The women for the treatment should be calmed and that could be done by a female doctor. There could be finding of issues whether the patient has been having any recurring problem. It is better to start with treatment process in such a way that the group that the women has been identified and understand more about the behavioural pattern of the group so that the treatment process would be more effective. There has to be more understanding of Matilide daily routine and whether Matilide would be staying awake in night. There has to be identification about the down period and this has to be done in a calm and relaxed manner. The patient in the case study has been identified with shy behavior. The understanding of the illness should be followed by the need for taking medication and in this case of Matilide, she had been reluctant on opening her state of disease and even when she understood it, she had been initially reluctant in taking medication. The Nursing Care Plan should be working out strategy of what will be the ideal solution for Matilide. The Nursing Care Plan should be working out a method by which Matilide would understand more of the disease .It can be from any reference journal or medical publication. Matilide basic needs have to be protected and in this case she has been protected mentally. Matilide has to be protected from hyperactive behaviour that would be led to stress. The role of family in supporting Matilide has to be developed and in this case it has been seen that the grandparents was taking the initiative to take Matilide to the doctor. The supporting facility has to be taken forward in the case of Matilide. Matilide has been shy and does not know enough English and that means there could be usage of translator to ensure that Matilide would be calmer and relaxed. There has to be understanding about direct eye contact and that would mean that there have been certain sections who would be thinking direct eye contact as confrontational. The Nursing Care plans would have to be developed based on assessment of coping; self care activities, self esteem and suicidal tendencies. The care implementation plans would focus on addressing each of these issues based on the specific needs of each person. Provide a safe environment for the client with a focus on ensuring physical safety of the client and addressing the risk of self inflicted damage. Assess the potential for suicide. There would be swing between depressive and manic episodes and it is possible that suicidal tendencies flare up during the periods of depression. Mood elevation, on the other hand, may lead to feelings of grandiosity and invincibility and increase the risk for self damage. Reorient clients to person, place and time through repeated reinforcements, restrict rumination and encourage interactions with the clients to be rooted in reality. Try to limit new contacts by having the same personnel interact with the client. Besides introducing familiarity and trust, this will address the inability of the client to respond to many new people. (Glover, J & Wollacott, T 1992, p.88, 90, 95)The number of people interacting can and should be increased once the client improves so that dependency is reduced. Interact with the client in moderately cheerful voice; not too loud or silent. There has to be observing of record the clients food and fluid intake. Encouraging the client for small tasks would help the client to improve her condition. The client will be encouraged to spend time with feel good about things they can do and this can increase the attachment process. The health plan has to be developed in such a way that the supportive role of family members would be encouraged and this has to be carried forward to, family members in such a way that the specific need of the patient is understood and health care is taken forward. The recovery oriented services is crucial under this plan and that has serious implications in the life of the patient and in the family of the patient. Matilide should be accessed on the facial expressions, the movements, general appearance and the social interaction and that can be placed under the appearance factor. The Speech factor of Matilide can be accessed through the continuity of the speech, the flight of ideas that Matilide has displayed at the time of conversation. There has to be avoiding of stereotyping and generalization in the case. There would be cultural apprehensions and that would be overcome by the nurses. Nurses should understand the cultural values that have been perceived by the patients. There has to be concern of social support. The support that has been extended by the family would be determining the health of the family. The social and family support that the patient would be getting would determine the treatment process. Social support is a must in the recovery process of persons who is having a wide range of illnesses and these could help patients emotionally manage their illness, engage in required treatment behaviours, and obtain material resources. It is social support and culture that would be the key determinants of treatment process. There would be tension when the family members would be forced to seek the support of other family members. There has to be openness of information inside the family to reduce tension. There would be lack of access to other resources that would be adding to the pressure. Families would be looking at professional treatment given to them and that would be adding to the lessening of pressure on them. Conclusion There has to be understanding of culture and social context by the nurses. The healthcare access would be tackling system barriers and that has to be the main thing. There has been perception that culture has been the barrier to treatment process and that has to be overcome by nurses. The health care professionals should be able to understand and interpret the cultural process before giving out the treatment. There could be use of bilingual nurses that could be helping to understand the treatment process and disease more. There has to be understanding of different cultural traits and that means the Asians would be having different culture considered with Australians and so on. There would be change in gender perception also. There has to be understanding of different religious beliefs also like Muslim, Christian and Hindu. There has to be change in treatment process that meets the diverse cultures. (http://www.nctsnet.org/nctsn_assets/pdfs/promising_practices/cbpcbt_cultural.pdf). Reference Wood, J 2004, 'A first look at interpersonal communication', Interpersonal communication: everyday encounters, Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, Belmont. Pages copied: 10-41 Trudgen, R & Mala, D 2000, 'Thirteen years of wanting to know’, Djambatj Mala: why warriors lie down and die, Aboriginal Resource and Development Services Inc., Darwin. Pages copied: 97-112 Glover, J & Wollacott, T 1992, a social health atlas of Australia, vol. 2, South Australian Health Commission, Adelaide. Pages copied: 88, 90, and 95 Potter & Perry (Eds) 2005, 'Culture and ethnicity: the context of nursing in Australia and New Zealand’, Potter and Perry's fundamentals of nursing, 2nd edn, Elsevier Australia, Marrickville, NSW. Pages copied: 122-142 Australian Institute of Welfare and Health 2004, 'Population health: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people' Australian's health 2004, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Canberra. Pages copied: 195-206 Thomson, N (ed.) 2003, 'Responding to our spectacular failure', the health of indigenous Australians, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne. Pages copied: 488-501 “CPC-CBT: Combined Parent Child Cognitive-Behavioral Approach for Children and Families At-Risk for Child Physical Abuse”, viewed and retrieved from http://www.nctsnet.org/nctsn_assets/pdfs/promising_practices/cbpcbt_cultural.pdf “The Impact of Culture on Person/Family Centered Planning”, viewed and retrieved from http://www.nlbha.org/PDFs/CulturePlanning.pdf “Preliminary Adaptations for Working with Traumatized Latino/Hispanic Children and their Families”, viewed on http://socialwork.duhs.duke.edu/wysiwyg/downloads/culture_and_trauma_brief_v2n3_LatinoHispanicChildren.pdf Marsha E. Shapiro,"Asian Culture Brief: India", viewed and retrieved from http://www.hawaii.edu/hivandaids/Asian_Culture_Brief__India.pdf Read More

The cultural expectations and beliefs of the family have to be met by the health professionals and there are certain cultural beliefs that could be causing tension on the minds of the people. The case study in detail You are approached by the grandparents of a 16 year old Matilide.The elderly grandparents have been coming from Eastern Europe. The main problems that has been faced by the grandparents has been that the English has been heavily accented. That had led to the good English skills and they have been worried about Matilide.

The grandparents has not able to meet the granddaughter due to the political considerations and there has been confusion on the minds of grandparents. How to identify the cultural factors in the family and how to take the therapeutic process forward Culture has been one of the factors influencing nursing services, and it has been argued that nurses should be competent in cultural issues and that would be the main factor in determining the cultural issues. The patients would be having differences in mood conditions like mood could be elevated or mood could be depressed and both these periods would be separated by period of mood that would be normal.

This could be stated as a condition in which the condition or illness that would be characterized by frequent changes in the mood. The disorder would be affecting the lives of other family members negatively and that could include grandparents also. Nursing care plans are meant for meeting the clinical nursing situation. The nursing care plans are usually organized to meet the nursing process that has happened after the diagnosis has been met. The nursing plans are usually based on the psychiatric disorder, clinical behaviour and clinical problems.

The knowledge about the patient about the illness should be understood in detail. The family should be first taught about the features of counselling session and there should be goal in counseling and what has to be achieved by treatment. The process should be stating that the goals should be achievable and the goals and experiments would give therapy a direction. The experiments would be done in a case to case basis. It has stated that the family should have been more supportive of l patients to help them out but if not done counseling should be done.

The counselling on the female patient would be done by female nurses under the supervision of female doctors and that would be putting less pressure on the family. The reason for this is that there would be certain cultural implications that would be affecting the family and the concerned person. The cultural content of psychiatric diagnosis would be including the, well-recognized cultural variables like adequate family data, explanatory models, and strengths and weaknesses of every individual patient and that would be determining the treatment process.

( Australian Institute of Welfare and Health 2004,p.195-206) Cultural background would be determining the patient attitude to medical treatment and there are specific culture bound programmes and that would mean the presentation styles and the nurses should be understanding about the culture and immigration problems that could determine the treatment process. The nurses understanding of the culture would be effectively influencing the treatment process and that could be said as a counselling session.

(Thomson, N (ed.) 2003, p.488-501) The family has to be well seated in a comfortable chair with a suitable space between family and the counselor. They would be facing each other and there has to be some picture on the wall, a small coffee table, and the table should be having phone, tissue papers and a jug of water on top. (Potter & Perry (Eds) 2005, p.122-142)The door has to be kept closed after the family has entered and they should feel comfortable to speak clearly to the counselor without fear of being overheard by others.

The overall set up of the office should be making the family comfortable and relaxed and the room should be set up done in accordance with a description that suggests that special purpose counselling rooms would be making clients feel comfortable in a counselling context.

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