Cultural competence - Assignment Example

CULTURAL COMPETENCE Cultural competence is basically the ability, attitudes and necessary skills of providers and organizationsto efficiently offer health care services that meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of patients. Besides…“Competence is an ongoing process that involves accepting and respecting differences and not letting one’s personal beliefs have an undue influence on those whose worldview is different from one’s own. Cultural Competence includes having general cultural as well as cultural-specific information so that the health care provider knows what question to ask.

’’ Nurses are more likely to attain culturally competent cross cultural care when the multifaceted combination of cultural knowledge, consciousness, attitudes and skill are used enthusiastically for cultural evaluation of patient’s health beliefs and practices, and for negotiating culturally harmonizing health interventions through expertise cross cultural communication. Health care providers can employ a number of strategies of cultural competence in their practice so as to deliver effectively; for instance, cultural accommodations can have a big payoff for patient’s emotional well-being because it supports and facilitates the use of cultural practices that have not been proven harmful, a good case study is placing a metal object such as coin or key on the umbilicus of a new-born child, which is understood to promote healing according to some societies (Srivastava,2007).

However, for accommodation of culture to work, it is upon the nurse to have the prior knowledge of the culture from other sources, direct assessment and conversations. Implementing this strategy I quite involving because it requires the health provider to go extra mile in acquiring the relevant information related to a particular culture. Cultural preservation support clients in maintaining those aspects of their culture that promotes healthy behaviors. The health provider will support the use of systematically sound practices such as acupuncture for managing pain in a patient as well as interventions from biomedical health care systems such as using lower doses of opioid analgesics.

However, this might be a challenge due to stereotype, other health care givers will ascribe to certain beliefs and behaviors to their patients without really understanding the individual differences within the groups (Ivanov & Blue, 2007). Cultural repatterning involves working with the patient health promoting behaviors. A health provider will work with the patient in order to be able to help him or her change cultural practices that have been proved to be harmful to their lives and to embrace those that are healthy.

It may result to a cultural shock to the client; the individual might end up feeling helpless, anxiety, and bewildered while attempting to understand and become accustomed to a cultural group with different beliefs, values and practices. Cultural brokering is advocating, mediating, negotiating, and overruling between the health care culture and the patient’s culture on behalf of the patient. In most cases, this strategy has been faced by a big challenge of cultural blindness; most health providers have a propensity of ignoring all the differences that exists between the cultures and act as though there are no differences at all.

The patients may therefore feel discriminated and may not wholly corporate to be helped. ReferencesIvanov, L. L., & Blue, C. L. (2007). Public health nursing: Leadership, policy, & practice. Australia: Delmar Cengage Delmar.Srivastava, R. (2007). The healthcare professionals guide to clinical cultural competence. Toronto: Mosby Elsevier.