Cultural Competences Regarding HIV/AIDS - Essay Example

"Cultural Competences Regarding HIV/AIDS" is a marvelous example of a paper on the virus.
Acquiring a deep understanding of cultural competencies is critically and profoundly important when it comes to dealing with people suffering from HIV/AIDS. This paper is primarily based on highlighting the significance and benefits associated with understanding cultural competencies by the nurses in a health care setup. This is an indisputable fact that trying to raise general awareness about HIV/AIDS is not the only tool necessary to combat this lethal infection, rather instigating a compassionate and understanding attitude is a lot more necessary strategy that should be implemented. Stigma and foul prejudices restrain the health care professionals from developing a decent and mature attitude towards treating a person who is suspected of HIV/AIDS.

Basically, cultural competencies refer to the unique ability to relate effectively with people from varying cultural backgrounds. Developing and practicing this ability becomes increasingly important in health care setups, where many patients suffering from HIV/AIDS are left hurt and ignored because neither doctors nor nurses are ready to interact with such patients, let alone catering to their needs with specific concern to their different cultural backgrounds. Actually, cultural competencies make up one of the most basic tools for treating HIV-infected people because each culture holds different perceptions regarding this lethal infection. Where some cultures are more liberal in their philosophy, encourage seeking immediate treatment, and do not appreciate secluding people suffering from AIDS, other cultures may be insanely more orthodox and conservative in building perceptions about this infection and may even want suffering people to isolate themselves for the betterment of the society. With AIDS prevailing at a fast pace all over the globe, the need of the time is that all health care professionals and nurses especially should know perfectly well as how to cater to the needs of HIV infected patients in accordance with their cultures while taking care to respect their cultural norms and encouraging them to seek treatment. Respecting every cultural norm and principle of every single HIV-infected individual is just not possible, but efforts should be made to encourage the patients to stop sticking to those cultural norms which go against seeking treatment and encourage societal abandonment. In an order to effectively reduce the rate of HIV/AIDS, nurses should readily acquire cultural information about every infected patient and then apply that knowledge to the treatment process so that both nurses and patients could be facilitated and the treatment process could continue smoothly.

Summing up, adapting to different cultural norms and practices is not an easy job and should never be taken lightly by the nurses because it requires high levels of flexibility, tolerance, and respect for the viewpoints of infected patients. (Transcultural Nursing 2008). A culturally competent nurse should have the ability to mix his/her cultural understanding with nursing care. Cultural diversity is a major hurdle faced by the nurse's ineffective treatment of HIV infected patients and understanding and practicing cultural competence seems to be the only solution for removing myriad prejudices and stigma associated with this disease in an order to ensure a healthy and foolproof treatment.