In fact culture is the most influential factor in determining health beliefs and behaviors (Campinha-Bacote, 2003). Cultural competence involves being aware, sensitive, and knowledgeable in the diverse cultures that exist in the population. Health care providers need to not only embrace cultural diversity but must also strive for cultural competence in order to ensure that all patients receive the best care possible. Nurses spend the most time with their patients. Therefore, if nurses
Abstract Comfort is an important concept in nursing practice that must be used as a guide in providing holistic care to improve patient’s health status. In the history of nursing practice, the concept of comfort is vague and is often times linked to end of life situations only. Dr. Katharine Kolcaba, a teacher and a nurse researcher, developed the theory of comfort with the goal of improving the patient’s experience and overall satisfaction as well as to promote higher hospital integrity and better institutional outcomes. This paper informed the reader of the concept of Comfort Theory, its strengths and weaknesses including the barriers and challenges met when using the theory, its application and implication to critical care setting, and its relevance to healthcare professionals and to the health care system. Further on, the plan to implement the theory in critical care nursing was presented.
This encompasses the art aspect of the nursing profession. With further education and experience, I feel that I can practice the art of nursing by becoming culturally aware and delivering culturally-sensitive care, in my own nation and among other nations. The impact we can make on one another by being kind and helping in the situations we are able to is incredible. Relaying this message throughout the world can start to create a united sense of peace. The smallest act of kindness, acceptance and willingness to learn about what is important among individuals is a step toward this moral of peace and acceptance.
There are many unique and integrated cultural subgroup. Every individual has its own inherited culture and is quite different from another individual. Heritage Assessment tool is used as a dependable tool to identify and assess, health protection, maintenance and restoration of individual culture. One’s cultural views on health protection, maintenance and restoration is different from another. In health promotion, it’s the duty of a nurse to be culturally competent, in order to make the best decision to provide quality patient’s care, even though the nurses’ cultural belief might be different.
The way countries view diversity depends on the cultural values of the people, the range of diversity in the population and attitudes towards these differences. Health care organisations need to promote a culturally diverse work place to ensure everyone feels comfortable. They need to identify ones cultural background, values and beliefs, especially ones related to health and health care. (Lewis’s Medical-Surgical Nursing”, Di Brown, 2005, page 24) Identify and discuss a situation in which cultural diversity could impact on the delivery of client care Clients on Australian heath care may not be able to speak fluent English, whether it’s because they are from a different culture or have not been financially stable to be able to afford the schooling to learn English. This can become an issue when they enter the system.
Promoting health and well-being is a valuable part of a health care professional, it takes on the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC, 2008) principles that all individuals should be treated with the utmost respect and receive the highest standard of care. This reflective essay aims at explaining how learning experiences in two different health care settings have helped build on my ability to protect those vulnerable people in society and promote good health and wellbeing. Gibbs (1998) model of reflection will be used throughout the essay to describe the event, feelings, evaluation analysis and conclusion and out an action plan in place for future events. My first placement was a residential unit for those people with learning disability, my second setting was a maternity unit and I experienced both neonatal and antenatal care. Pseudonyms will be used in accordance with The Nursing and Midwifery council (NMC, 2008) to protect confidentiality.
Reflection Paper #1 – Understanding Diversity Amanda Cort N523 Diversity is the heart of life. No two people are born the same, and certainly no two develop in the same way. The nurse’s failure to celebrate this diversity, or at least understand it in a value-neutral way, disrupts the nurse-client relationship and endangers the client’s physical, psychosocial, and spiritual well-being. Rather than viewing these differences as liabilities, nurses should consider them as different aspects of wellness, as well as opportunities for expanding and improving practice. The first step towards understanding diversity is identifying the ways in which individuals can differ.
Cultural Sensitivity Introduction to Communication 10/20/13 Cultural Sensitivity As a future nurse practitioner cultural sensitivity is very important, I have to be thoughtful of other cultures and their traditions. There are several aspects of cultural sensitivity that come to mind, stereotyping, discrimination, racism, and prejudice. These are situations in which we may portray a lack of sensitivity without realizing it or intending to offend someone else. A stereotype is “...a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people.” (Cardwell, 1996). Stereotyping happens all the time, people assume that everybody has the same believes and same ideas.
The person as defined in Henderson’s model is all encompassing; it applies to the sick, the well and the dying. Caring would include a genuine interaction with the patient, being a source of comfort and strength, and when the patient is well, the nurses must make sure to empower the patients to take care of themselves. Moreover, during that time, nurses functions were not identified programs for skills training and even education varied from school to school, to countries and even in hospitals .There were also legal barriers to how nurses should carry out their duties, which made the profession’s position in healthcare ambiguous and misunderstood. Nursing is primarily helping people in performing basic bodily functions that they are able to do if they are well and to provide this care and help in a limited time only (Henderson, 1991). It stressed more on what the nurses should do and who should they take care of and thus belongs to the reciprocal interaction world view category.
Also, we must create workplaces that embrace diversity among healthcare professionals and that seek to promote multicultural workplace harmony and prevent multicultural workplace conflict. Both of these endeavors begin with diversity self-awareness and diversity awareness. D Diversity Awareness vs. Diversity Self-Awareness Diversity self-awareness occurs when we reflect on our own cultural identity, realize our own cultural values and beliefs, and recognize the differences within our own cultural group(s). Diversity awareness refers to an active, ongoing conscious process in which we recognize similarities and differences within and between various cultural groups. Diversity assessment necessitates cultural assessment of patients and cultural sharing among healthcare professionals.