Maintenance of Social Hierarchies - Essay Example

It is a culture that dictates how people of a given group, organization, or institution think, behave, interact, communicate or make judgments about issues affecting them. Becoming culturally competent is extremely important. A nurse can become culturally competent by training self on different cultural issues regularly, following code of ethics and conduct that are culturally tolerant, demonstrating attitudes and behaviors that are culturally competent, researching different cultures, visiting different people to know their way of living, adopting less righteous approach when treating patients of different cultures and appreciating all cultures. Changing treatment technologies, immigration of people from other parts of the world, different perceptions of culture and treatment approaches as well as rise in rights and gender of special groups such as lesbians and gays demand that nurses must be culturally competent. This is to be able to truly care for the sick in different communities. Without cultural competency, it is extremely difficult to offer fair and equal nursing care to all.

There are two models that were used to describe culture and diversity. They are the theory of culture care: Diversity and Universality and Purnell model of nursing. The theory of culture care: Diversity and Universality focus on nursing and consequences of health care services. It also puts emphasis on culture and care relationships as its focus on individuals. Finally, the theory acknowledges that caring is a universal concept that varies across different cultures. Purnell model brings communication, bio-cultural, high-risk behaviors, nutrition, workforce issues, pregnancy and childbearing practices, death rituals, health care practices, and health care providers to explain culture more explicitly. The factors that have contributed to health disparities in underserved populations are racial and ethical differences, geographical isolation, lack of consumer involvement in decision making, poverty, and lack of trained health care providers.

There are a number of Socio-cultural factors that directly influence quality health care. The Socio-cultural factors include family roles, bio-cultural ecology, workforce issues, nutrition, and spirituality. Family roles involve different roles played by male and female persons in society. In some societies, nursing is a preserve for the female and patients may perceive men as incompetent in the nursing field. Secondly, bio-cultural ecology is another factor that explains variation in ethnicity and race. A person of a certain race may find it unacceptable for nurses from different races to care for him or her.  The third factor is workforce issues. Some people prefer working as individuals or communicating in certain ways which may conflict with the behavior of people from other cultures. The fourth factor is nutrition. Different communities like or dislike certain foods. Spirituality is another factor. Some people prefer the use of black magic or herbs as opposed to modern medicine.  The barrier to delivering quality health care includes poor communication, stereotyping, cultural blindness, and ethnocentrism.

The current perspective is that cultural competence / trans-culture is both general practice and specialty area that focuses on global cultures. A nurse is culturally competent if he or she posses four cognitive components.