Cultural Awareness

Cultural Awareness

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Cultural Awareness

The world is evolving, and innovations are taking place in the field of healthcare and medication. The health care and medication expect the care providers to adopt the trends and innovations to fulfill the organizational needs and requirements. However, in the healthcare system, lack of cultural awareness and failure to provide culturally competent care to patients can affect them negatively.

The cultural competence includes knowledge, behaviors, and skills, which help the nurses to provide care to people all over the world having a cultural background who speak their languages ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"eS3y7hM2","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Murphy, 2011)","plainCitation":"(Murphy, 2011)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":489,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/F0XOCTdk/items/ZNJDBKTX"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/F0XOCTdk/items/ZNJDBKTX"],"itemData":{"id":489,"type":"article-journal","title":"The importance of cultural competence","container-title":"Nursing made Incredibly Easy","page":"5","volume":"9","issue":"2","source":"journals.lww.com","abstract":"An abstract is unavailable.","DOI":"10.1097/01.NME.0000394039.35217.12","ISSN":"1544-5186","language":"en-US","author":[{"family":"Murphy","given":"Kathryn"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2011",4]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Murphy, 2011). For a nurse, it is important to develop new skills according to the requirements of the healthcare organization, to meet the needs and objectives. A nurse can become culturally competent by learning new languages and learn about the diverse cultures from which people belong. People come to seek help and nurses learn how to behave with the people and experience new practices. Nurses lead people while providing health care to them and adopt the different roles according to the needs and nurses can also plan strategies to cope with the situations ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"WSjVaNFH","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(de Leon Siantz, 2008)","plainCitation":"(de Leon Siantz, 2008)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":492,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/F0XOCTdk/items/RFG27TBY"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/F0XOCTdk/items/RFG27TBY"],"itemData":{"id":492,"type":"article-journal","title":"Leading Change in Diversity and Cultural Competence","container-title":"Journal of Professional Nursing","page":"167-171","volume":"24","issue":"3","source":"ScienceDirect","abstract":"This article describes an expanded leadership role needed in schools of nursing as the nurse of the 21st century is prepared to assume expanded roles in a diverse society. With schools of nursing becoming more global, and the diverse population of the United States rapidly growing, a critical need exists for nurses who are ready to partner in the health care that multicultural communities need locally, nationally, and globally. Diversity and cultural competence have now become central issues in nursing education, research, practice, and health policy. Diversity leadership in a school of nursing can no longer concentrate only on issues of affirmative action, recruitment, and retention. The purpose of this article is to discuss how diversity leadership must increasingly focus on building a corporate environment in schools of nursing that integrates diversity and cultural competence with the strategic plan of the School's Chief Nursing Officer, across academic programs, research, practice, and public policy to eliminate health disparities in partnership with faculty, students, staff, the University infrastructure, and the community at large. The theoretical framework that guided the strategic planning is based on the model used by the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellowship Program. Examples of program initiatives designed to implement the strategic plan to strengthen the diversity and cultural competence of one school of nursing environment are described.","DOI":"10.1016/j.profnurs.2008.01.005","ISSN":"8755-7223","journalAbbreviation":"Journal of Professional Nursing","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Leon Siantz","given":"Mary Lou","non-dropping-particle":"de"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2008",5,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (de Leon Siantz, 2008). A nurse would not be able to provide care and a safe environment for the patients. If he/she lacks cultural awareness, then this can make a negative impact on the health of the patient ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"uGkFt95N","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Leever, 2011)","plainCitation":"(Leever, 2011)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":495,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/F0XOCTdk/items/S9DTSYL8"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/F0XOCTdk/items/S9DTSYL8"],"itemData":{"id":495,"type":"article-journal","title":"Cultural competence: Reflections on patient autonomy and patient good","container-title":"Nursing Ethics","page":"560-570","volume":"18","issue":"4","source":"SAGE Journals","abstract":"Terms such as ‘cultural competence’ and ‘transcultural nursing’ have comfortably taken their place in the lexicon of health care. Their high profile is a reflection of the diversity of western societies and health care’s commitment to provide care that is responsive to the values and beliefs of all who require treatment. However, the relationship between cultural competence and familiar ethical concepts such as patient autonomy has been an uneasy one. This article explores the moral foundations of cultural competence, ultimately locating them in patient autonomy and patient good. The discussion of patient good raises questions about the moral relevance of a value’s rootedness in a particular culture. I argue that the moral justification for honoring cultural values has more to do with the fact that patients are strongly committed to them than it does with their cultural rootedness. Finally, I suggest an organizational approach to cultural competence that emphasizes overall organizational preparedness.","DOI":"10.1177/0969733011405936","ISSN":"0969-7330","shortTitle":"Cultural competence","journalAbbreviation":"Nurs Ethics","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Leever","given":"Martin G"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2011",7,1]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Leever, 2011).

During nursing practices, I was new to the healthcare system, and I had very less knowledge about cultural competencies, particularly the technical skills and attitude. In healthcare, you will meet several people and patients so that they will have a differing behavior and attitude as compared to you. Once, I was treating a patient, who was an immigrant, I went to treat the patient, but suddenly he started to shout at me, I kept silent, but he later started crying, I was looking at him and was not able to understand that how to behave with him in this condition. The attitude I should have had is that I would have tried to calm him either by giving him an injection or medicine, but at that time, my experience was not enough and lack of knowledge regarding the medication. The lack of knowledge leads to a seizure of the patient and he fainted later on. It was important to learn about dealing with the patients and adopting new attitudes to provide healthcare and having knowledge about the medication can help to cope with the situations.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY de Leon Siantz, M. L. (2008). Leading Change in Diversity and Cultural Competence. Journal of Professional Nursing, 24(3), 167–171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2008.01.005

Leever, M. G. (2011). Cultural competence: Reflections on patient autonomy and patient good. Nursing Ethics, 18(4), 560–570. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733011405936

Murphy, K. (2011). The importance of cultural competence. Nursing Made Incredibly Easy, 9(2), 5. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NME.0000394039.35217.12