Nursing Roles in a Diverse Culture - Essay Example

? Nursing Roles in a Diverse Culture Nursing Roles in a Diverse Culture Introduction Culture is a set of beliefs and values that mould a person’s behavior. It is highly related to individualism. A profession like nursing demands interaction with people from different cultures and traditions. Providing health care to people from varied cultural beliefs and backgrounds requires broad-mindedness. Tolerance to cross cultural differences, accepting changes, building rapport with patients with another cultural background and providing culturally appropriate care should be included as part of the nurse’s training program to make the nursing students competent enough in dealing with occupational challenges in community nursing. As scholars point out, “with expanding immigration, increasing globalization, and minority population growth, there is a need to enrich the diversity within the nursing profession to better meet the needs of our changing society.” (Bednarz, Schim & Doorenbos, 2010). Diversified courses have been formulated in nursing programs to prepare the students in serving clients from different communities. One of the greatest challenges in the health care industry is the scarcity of adequately qualified staff to meet the needs of clients from a highly varied ethnic and cultural composition of the society. A major step in solving problems related to cultural differences in the health care system was transcultural movement. Transcultural nursing also became known as a way to combine the concept of culture in to all aspects of nursing while providing healthcare (Desantis, 1988; Giger & Davidhizar, 2004). The nurses of the future have to be taught to apply culture and diversity in a clinical setting. For that the nursing curricula should reflect culturally diverse learning styles. Course Description The course would aim at equipping a nurse to respond appropriately to the cultural needs of the client. For that a wholesome training in one’s own culture, the culture of the client and how to bridge the gap between the two will be provided. This enables the nurse to ensure care in accordance with the cultural need of the client. Cultural competence is the ability of the nurse to work effectively with in the cultural context of the patient. Knowledge about cultural diversity and their impact on interactions in the healthcare arena is essential for nurses working anywhere, be it in a clinical setting, administration or a research centre. The course helps the nurses to know about traditional treatment methods of different cultures, their conceptualization of illness, health and wellness, healers in particular communities and their social status among them etc. The course trains the nurse to understand that cultural variation means each client should be evaluated based on individual cultural differences. The program analyses the influence of recent, political and demographic changes in delivery of health care. The course includes vital information regarding various healthcare practices, values and beliefs. Additionally, as Crow (1993) (Lowe, 2002) purport, nursing curricula should reflect culturally diverse learning styles. As DeSantis (1991) points out, integrating the emicetic approach in patient care in the nursing curriculum, theory and practice helps the development of anthropological perspective among students. Course Objectives At the end of the course, nursing students will be able to 1. Realizes that cultural beliefs and practices are as integral as physical and psycho social factors in nursing process, 2. recognize the similarities in different cultures, 3. ask pertinent research questions utilizing cross cultural body of knowledge, 4. Reach a position to influence professional policies and practice in response to cultural diversity, 5. Uproot the thoughts of ethnocentrism and thereby help in establishing a smooth nurse-client interaction, 6. Attain skill in cultural assessment of the patient; that is obtaining necessary information from the patient that will help the nurse to prepare a culturally relevant treatment plan, 7. Develop an attitude to respect other culture and accept traditional treating methods, 8. Demonstrates and understands health related issues from a multicultural perspective, 9. View nurse-client relationship from global perspective and strives to provide quality care, 10. Understand and interprets the relationship between ethics and law and analyses the relationship of judiciary on healthcare policies, and 11. Communicate the etiquettes of different culture to others and explains its importance in that particular culture. Teaching Strategies and Learning Activities To learn about the main culture of the population with which the nurses have to deal with, lecture cum demonstration method can be employed. With the help of a learned and talented teacher literature reviews of various cultures can be conducted and explained. Another learning opportunity is to have ongoing involvement in cross cultural engagement with clients on a regular basis. Cultural assessment tools can be used to better understand ethnical diversity of clients which help in shaping more effective health care techniques. Seminars and symposiums to attract ethnic and cultural minorities in to nursing profession can be carried out. Audio visual aids like power point and video presentations can be used to evaluate the use of culture on physiological, psychological, spiritual and social factors in the nursing context. Case studies identifying the effectiveness of various intervention strategies with cultural groups can be integrated with the clinical functions of assessment, diagnosis, and intervention. Panel discussions on individualizing care and treatment can be conducted to assert the fact that each individual brings his own set of values and cultural beliefs in addition to nationality and background due to acculturation and self-identification. Field trips to ethnic cultural centers and communities to understand their customs and traditions would help the students better, once they enter in to their nursing career. Training in other languages can be an added advantage for the students. Conducting quizzing sessions on different cultural and ethnic backgrounds and on culturally relevant care and communication develops a stronger foundation in culture based health care and greater confidence in the students. Activities like ‘ethnic pot luck lunches’ can be conducted where students get opportunities to taste ethnic food and see people wearing traditional outfits. A group discussion based on this activity can be conducted after that. Learning Assessment Formative assessment can be done by observing the students daily activities among the cultural groups. How the student behaves with people of other culture, how tolerant he/she is. His listening skills and patience can be assessed. Things including whether the student uses culturally derogatory statements, how can a client with conflicting beliefs be convinced successfully, client- nurse interaction etc can be evaluated through anecdotal records. Mock test on cultural etiquette can be conducted as part of the learning assessment program. Individual assessment can be accomplished by making the students answer ‘getting to know you’ surveys, answering online inventories regarding the student’s method of processing information helps the faculty members to use the most appropriate technique in teaching him/her. Digital story telling technique is an assessment method which can be employed for in depth self reflection and comparative cultural analysis. Evaluating discussions, assignments, personal journaling, photo essays and presentations are all part of formative evaluation. Summative assessment can be done by their semester exams twice yearly. This includes a written part as well as the practical part in which the student’s listening, explaining, treating, and negotiating skills are assessed. The ability to tackle cultural challenges is assessed by providing situational questions called vignette. This technique assesses components like cultural skills and cultural encounters in providing cultural competence. Conclusion Nursing is a culturally diverse profession. Cultural competence in health care sector ensures quality care. Awareness of unique cultural issues helps the nurses in providing care and treatment appropriate for people from different cultures based on their needs. When there is culturally relevant care, improved health outcomes have been seen as per various studies. Culture specific nursing care is the blending of three culture systems. They are the culture of the nurse, the culture of the client and the culture of the setting. A nurse becomes the client’s advocate when he/she recognizes cultural diversity, integrating cultural knowledge and working in a culture appropriate manner when necessary. With immigration and globalization, nursing is expected to be a culturally competent profession in the society. So the need for a culturally competent workforce has taken a sense of urgency. To understand cultural diversity, more than integrating knowledge about various cultures in the curricula and teaching categories of cultural content does not help. In addition to that categories of beliefs and practices of cultural characteristics should be developed and implemented in nursing assessment and intervention purposes. Despite the various efforts in promoting cultural specific health care in the nursing sector, the changes are slow and overdue. This is due to the poor representation of ethnic minorities in the profession. Culture sensitive training helps nurses to overcome ethnocentrism and in exercising respectful ways of behavior to the clients as well as the bystanders. The nurse learns to appreciate the clients’ healthcare needs and social issues. This knowledge also helps in making clinical judgments without bias. In nutshell, knowledge of cultural diversity is like a feather in a nurse’s cap that enables him/her to perform better in a different cultural setting. Reference Bednarz, H., Schim, S & Doorenbos, A. (2010). Cultural Diversity in Nursing Education: Perils, Pitfalls, and Pearls. The Journal of Nursing Education. 49 (5): 253-260. Crow, K. (1993). Multiculturalism and pluralistic thought in nursing education: Native American world view and the nursing academic world view. .Journal of Nursing Education,32(5), 198–204. DeSantis, L. (1988). The relevance of transcultural nursing to international nursing. International Nursing Review,35, 110–116. DeSantis, L. (1991). Developing faculty expertise in culturally focused care and research. Journal of Professional Nursing, 7(1),300–309. Giger, J. N., & Davidhizar, R. E. (2004).Transcultural nursing assessment and intervention. (4th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby. Lowe, J. (2002). Balance and harmony through connectedness: The intention of Native American nurses.Holistic Nursing Practice,16 (4), 4–11. Read More