Cultural Competence in Australian Nursing Practice - Case Study Example

Cultural Competence in Australian Nursing Practice Student Name: Institution: Introduction A lot has changed in the medical world, and so are the practices in health care institutions. Technological, economical and socio-cultural aspects are the main factors that have geared the emergence of the new trends in the medical world. Technological advancements have made medical practices more reliable and effective to the population (Brenson, 2013). Currently, health care facilities and services are much more available to the world as compared to the past. Organizations such as WHO have come up with the mechanism that can benefit those people who in one way or another cannot afford normal health care services. These and other trends have led to a better planet in terms of health matters. However, issues of inequality continue to rise among health institutions all over the world. Globalization has opened doors for people to move freely around the world with few or no restrictions at all. Today, people from diverse background find themselves together for work purposes or other businesses. In clinics, employees are forced to possess skills that can enable them handle a group of mixed cultural grounds (ANMC, 2008). With the help of various human rights institutions, disparities in relation to cultural matters have been reduced but incidences that indicate discrimination still occur in health institutions. Reflect In Practice Issues of inequality in health care treatment continue to be on the rise especially among the western nations with the majority of cases occurring in the United States. One of the striking events that I have observed in the clinic is a situation where an individual could not receive the right Medicare because of their cultural believes on different genders. Some women did not accept medical services from male workers as their cultural practices did not allow contact between these two genders. This is a devastating situation for both the client and the health practitioner. The duty of a health worker is to serve humanity and ensure that their health standards are stable (Hiles, 2010). Helping people and watching them get on their feet satisfies a healthy worker more than the money gained from their duties can satisfy. Many are the times that health workers go home at the end of the day dissatisfied not because they were unable to fulfil their duties, but because the client could not give them an ample time to do their job. This problem is common in many places especially areas inhabited by people of the Islam faith. In these cultures, it is not allowed for a woman to come into contact with men especially at certain conditions. In extreme cases, the two are not even allowed to see each other. It becomes quite challenging for a nurse to deliver in such conditions. With the continued reduction of health workers, sometimes a clinic may lack male or female workers. In such situations, the client ends up to receiving any attention or he or she is forced to visit a different organization (Matusiak, 2013). Medicare does not end when someone receives medicine or is injected at the hospital; it is a continuous process that ensures total healing both physically and emotionally. On most occasions, people with these tight cultural and ethical issues have a problem following doctor’s procedures of the healing process (ANMC, 2006). Some believe it is taboo to take particular type of medication, therefore, ignore doctor’s prescription in the effort to maintaining cultural ethics not knowing that such habits only harm their health and make them vulnerable to re-infection. Ethnical differences exist in every society, and the same treatment is evident where such differences are available. Every person has some background where certain values and principles are upheld with dignity. It is a normal reaction for one to protect always that which they have known as the right way of doing things. Globalization and technological advancements continue to erase such traditional attachments, but much is yet to be done if people are to let go completely of their old practices and embrace the new ways of life (Morton, 2013). Poor service delivery in health care service delivery occurs in four levels including health care system level, care process level, patient level and employment structure level. For instance, the problem at hand is a patient level incidence where the patient lacks enough knowledge on health matters. Lack of enough information makes patients to fail to appreciate the roles and duties of doctors and nurses. This attitude can cause a nurse to be arrogant or discriminative to this group since no one is proud of doing something for somebody who is not appreciative in any way. Nurses are trained to endure hard situation, but the fact remains that they are human in there and want people to appreciate them just like any other human being. Such incidences have brought about disparity in treatment of people based on their culture and ethnic groups (Greenberg, 2013). Reflect On Practice Observing these incidences made me think of patient education systems. The reason why these patients appear hostile is that they have no one to educate them on health matters. Health education is vital not just for medics but the entire society. In fact, educating the public on the importance of medication and other medical procedures helps reduce follow up services, which in many cases slow down operations at the hospitals (ANMC, 2006). Medics tend to think that all patients need is the prescriptions but a recent research indicated that people prefer to understand what exactly they are getting involved with like explaining to them more about their conditions and the medication prescribed. It is such a difficult task to manage an ignorant society in terms of health. I have experienced a situation where a client insists on being given a particular kind of medicine claiming that it is the prescription he or she has been using for their condition. A condition like this is geared by lack of right information on medication and health matters. If such patients had their doctors or nurses explain to them the use of the kind of prescription they were given it would be easier to serve them. The struggle might actually be on a different kind of a painkiller, which works as that which customers demand. Therefore, it is time that nurses and other medical practitioners took time to explain to clients their conditions and the kind of medication they are given, each with its purpose (Jeffrey’s, 2010). Another concern that this incidence raised is the vitality of life. Human life should be valued more than any other thing in the world. If there is an area in life where instances of inequality should never be reported it is in the area of health and medical care. At no time should a person’s life be determined by their social status in the society or their background. WHO keeps emphasizing on health equity, but watching the trends of discrimination one can easily conclude that such a task is more or less a dead end (Berenson, 2013). Cultural and ethical discrimination will continue to mount if patients are not given the right education concerning their ailment and how following some old traditional principles can hinder their wellbeing. I happen to be of the opinion that if these patients knew the dangers of their conditions they would not reject anyone who tried to help them weather male or female. In addition, such group of people need to understand that holding on to some ethnical practices jeopardizes the health status of the entire generation. Mixed feelings among workers exist concerning such occurrences. For new nurses and other workers, it is usually hard to cope with this situation especially those who just left colleges. In learning institutions, medics are taught on the vitality of life and how important it is to save lives. People leave colleges with such enthusiasm to practice health care only to get to the real world and discover there is more than just saving lives in clinics (Tseng & Streltzer, 2008). Majority of workers would want to help, but they are limited in terms of resources, power and knowledge. The common reaction to ethnical problem is where nurses draw back from serving such patients and even request to be put in departments that do not require lots of human contact. Other nurses try to break the walls between the two sides and try to explain why it is necessary for the patient to receive Medicare (Betancourt et al., 2008). Some workers have shown reactions that are more direct by leaving the organization and opening their personal clinics if the firm does not honour their plea. This is a rather expensive move since one has to take care of the clinical needs considering the fact that medicines are becoming more rare and expensive as days go by. However, it is a worth taking the risk for someone who enjoys the satisfaction of their job. Personally, I have not seen any positive impact from these incidences, but there is a bunch of negative impacts. Such reactions may cause unnecessary loss of life where nurses neglect such a patient. In addition, nurses can become de-motivated leading to low quality service, a condition that can cost the organization their operating licence. These instances are the basis for ethnical discrimination, something the world health organization is fighting so hard. If this group is neglected in terms of medical care, then it simply means that they are going to be less productive in every aspect. An unhealthy nation is an economically poor nation (Matusiak, 2013). Poor health conditions of these people drag the economic development of a nation if not completely destroy it. Therefore, it is necessary that health care services be given equitably to people if a nation is to grow both economically and socially. Reflection for Practice Observing health disparity based on ethical standards in the clinic got me thinking of the many organizations that have formulated strategies to ensure equality especially in health matters. There is so much in literature on the way forward from this menace, because, as a matter of fact, these incidences do not happen only in one health institution. However, employers and employees are relentless to pursue these strategies and ensure equitable service delivery among people. Health equity can be delivered in two main ways either horizontal equity or vertical equity. Horizontal equity demands that people of the same status are treated in the same way with equal opportunities and chances (Hiles, 2010). Conversely, vertical equity states that members of different personalities and levels should be treated differently according to their levels but not in a discrimination manner. When these two are perfectly implemented in an organization, cases of discrimination will become a thing of the past (Hiles, 2010). The greatest lesson I learnt from all this is the fact that the health workers themselves can only effect changes in health care matters but not implemented by organizations and persons outside the field. Therefore, as a health worker, I understood that I have an obligation to play in order to stop any further occurrences of similar culture based incidences and not just the ethnic related but all kinds of culturally based incidences. In the future, I intend to be keener on cultural competence in clinical operations. Much on medical competence is taught in medical learning institution, but the practical part is yet to take full effect. At health care institutions, health practitioners are presented with patients from diverse backgrounds following the notion of globalization. Therefore, for me to function in a more effective manner, I need to develop people skills and try as much as possible to deal with all manner of people. This will include me working at areas with a huge amalgam of cultural diversities to learn more on how to deal with multicultural diversities. I have seen health workers struggle to deliver services to clients simply because issues of cultural competence were taken lightly or were completely ignored. Patients express their symptoms quite differently, from how they are presented in medical books basing on their knowledge of health matters, beliefs, as well as social settings (Hiles, 2010). I need to be able to make the right interpretation from the client’s explanation regardless of our differences as a way to ensure that I deliver quality and equitable services to all clients. Health care is about developing a relationship with the patient. One cannot deliver effective medical services to a person they do not connect with at a personal level, emotionally so to say. Sometimes it is difficult to develop these relationships as a result of poor communication skills either geared by the worker intentionally or arising from the cultural differences from both parties (ANMC, 2006). Either way, it is the duty of the health worker to ensure that they break these walls and connect with the patient in one way or another. In the future, I purpose to develop always a relationship with my patients in the effort to serve my course better. Again, this brings me back to the issue of developing high levels of cultural competence in handling persons from different cultural backgrounds. According to nursing standards, health workers are supposed to cater for bio psychosocial-spiritual perspective of clients. This means taking care of a client’s emotional perspective, socio-cultural and socioeconomic issues, spiritual and physical aspects (Berenson, 2013). This is one way of ensuring that all patients are brought to one level and treated equitably. The reason why some patients continue to lack the right information concerning health care is that no one cares to give them these services. It is through after care services where patients learn more about medication and the importance of living in healthy environments. I believe practicing this approach in any medical institution I find myself can help reduce health care disparities on cultural bases. Lastly, managerial protocols in hospitals should be kept at a minimum level (ANMC, 2008). Nurses need to be given enough capacity to make the right call in case of a situation on the ground. This is a culture I intent to propagate whenever I find myself in leadership positions in clinics. In conclusion, cultural competence among medics is necessary for any institution that aims at achieving success someday. Much is happening in the world geared by globalization and, if anything, the situation is not getting any better. Each day the world opens its doors to new ideas of globalization and free movements. A nurse does not only face cultural disparity from clients alone but also from their co-workers (Morton, 2013). People are free to work anywhere around the globe, therefore, one needs to be competent enough when it comes to dealing with people from different levels in order to make health care facilities places worth visiting. References Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council (ANMC). (2008). Code of Ethics for Nurses in Australia, Canberra, Australia: Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA). Retrieved from http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-and- Guidelines.aspx Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council (ANMC). (2006). National Competency Standards for the Registered Nurse, Canberra, Australia: Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA). Retrieved from http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-and-Guidelines.aspx Berenson, L. (2013). Cultural competencies for nurses: impact on health and illness. Burlington, Mass: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Betancourt, J., Green, A., Carrillo, J. & Park, E. (2008). Cultural competence and health care disparities: key perspective and trends. Health affairs, 24(2), 499-505. Greenberg, N. (2013). A project to increase faculty’s cultural competence in mentoring English as a second language nursing students. Teaching and learning in nursing, 8(4), 128-135. Hiles, A. (2010). A plan for employers to improve employee health and medical plan efficiency by eliminating disparities in care. Retrieved from http://www.aon.com/attachments/culturally_competent_health_care.pdf.. Jeffreys, M. (2010). Teaching cultural competence in nursing and health care inquiry, action, and innovation. New York: Springer Pub. Co. Matusiak, G. (2013). Delivering culturally competent nursing care. New York, NY: Springer Pub. Co. Morton-Miller, A. (2013). Cultural competence in nursing education: practice what we preach. Teaching and learning in nursing, 8(3), 91-95. Tseng. & Streltzer, J. (2008). Cultural competence in health care. New York: Springer. Read More