Cultural Competency in Nursing - Essay Example

Cultural competency comes as a difficult task for many doctors as they have familiarized themselves with different cultural backgrounds, so that communication between them and the patients become easier, and the best possible way of treatment can be acknowledged.

Several nurses and doctors find patients’ cultures as an obstacle to treatment. They believe that they, health practitioners, have been trained to know what is best for the patient, and traditional beliefs amongst patients should not be encouraged. Science should be the basis on which medicine is supposed to be practiced. Practitioners also argue that the health of the patient should be given top priority, and not their cultural backgrounds or beliefs. (Toni Tripp-Reimer, Lisa Skemp Kelley)

Another problem with cultural competency is that it degrades the cultural teachings to a mere technical subject, which the medical practitioners have to learn. Furthermore, the lack of diversity in the hospitals and the medical profession as a whole leads to a lack of cultural competency care. Nurses or doctors might appear a little indifferent or unknowingly rude to a patient of a different ethnicity. The patients might notice this as a lack of sensitivity on the practitioner’s part and from there on, the communication bridge starts to break down. Also, the systems in the health care service are not up to the mark and do not meet the needs of people of different cultural backgrounds and ethnicities (Joseph R. Betancourt, Alexander R. Green, and J. Emilio Carrillo. 2002).

Consoling a family in grief and leading them through an adaptive process can be a challenging task for medical practitioners, especially nurses. This requires substantial knowledge of different cultural backgrounds so that there is no breakdown of communication. A lack of respect for someone else’s cultural beliefs comes off as a great hindrance and does not help the whole consoling process. If a nurse or doctor is familiar with cultural beliefs or shows respect for people of different ethnicities, he/she can aid a family through the grieving process. But if there is a fine line drawn between two different cultures or two distinct members of the society, then a communication gap is established and the practitioner is unable to support the devastated family. Therefore, to be skilled at comforting families in a time of sorrow, the nurses or doctors need to narrow the communication gap between them and the family, if there exists one. Read More