Diverse Culture in Nursing
Diverse Culture in Nursing
Diverse Culture in Nursing
Name
Institution
DIVERSE CULTURE IN NURSING 2
Introduction
Culture plays a critical role in the health of an individual. The reason for this assertion
centers on the fact that cultures create beliefs and ideologies that support the growth and personal
development of a persons. In this regard, certain cultural perspectives control the health and
well-being of an individual. For instance, a given culture may revere a certain object, symbol,
item, or food as divine, hence capable of healing powers (Davidhizar & Giger, 2002). In fact,
medicines. Therefore, it is appropriate for nurses to evaluate the diverse cultural perceptions of
their patients in order to guide them on how best to provide them with effective nursing care. The
following paper examines how nurses can make use of culture specific knowledge, skills, as well
as behavior in eliciting data, developing a nursing diagnosis, as well as planning nursing care.
Client assessment using Giger and Davidhizars Transcultural Assessment Model (Giger
The Transcultural assessment model enables nurses to assess and provide nursing care to
patients from diverse cultural settings. According to Giger and Davidhizar (2002), the
Transcultural model postulates that each individual has culturally unique personalities and as
such, should be assessed and nursed according to the six main cultural phenomena, which
biological variations. Using these six phenomena to assess a patient will provide the nurse with
adequate knowledge on how best to address the needs of the patient thereby providing him or her
appropriate nursing care. The following is the results from an interview conducted by a nurse to a
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female elderly patient named Dorothy Spears. Dorothy was 62 years old suffering from acute
Communication
entails the means by which communities transmit and preserve culture. In this regard, an
individual learns both verbal as well as non-verbal communication through his/her culture. As
such, it is appropriate to note that communication usually presents the most significant problems
for nurses when working with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds. The reason for this
assertion is that for people to communicate effectively, they have to understand one another
properly, and for understanding to exist, they must speak the same language (Giger, 2016).
However, nurses face a problem when encountered with patients from diverse cultural
backgrounds who speak different languages. In the process, they face a breach in communication
created by the language barrier between them and the patients. The best way to overcome this
barrier is for a nurse to be multi-lingual, by learning many different languages, or demand the
hospital to provide the services of a good language interpreter to assist in such cases of
miscommunication.
Communication with Dorothy was smooth as we both spoke the same English language;
therefore, we understood one another clearly. She was an eloquent English speaker having been a
schoolteacher during her youthful years before old age caught up with her. As such, she
relationship enabled me to attend to her better, making her one of my favorite patients.
Space
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Space in the nursing perspective refers to the distance separating individuals when they
interact with one another. All communication between nurses and their patients occurs within the
context of space. In this regard, it is imperative for the nurses to understand and uphold the four
distinct zones of interpersonal space. These zones are public, personal, intimate, and social
consultative. Furthermore, it is imperative for nurses to note the fact that different cultures have
different rules pertaining their issue of personal distance (Cartwright & Shingles, 2011). For
instance, territoriality refers to an attitude or feelings towards ones personal space or area, in
which case, territorial behaviors differ from one person to another. Therefore, nurses should be
keen not to arouse feelings of territoriality of violation of the personal or intimate space of a
patient as this can cause them discomfort, which may scare away the patient, leading to his/her
refusal to continue with the treatment or never returning to the hospital for further care.
Understanding and upholding the personal space of patients should be a key priority for nurses.
Dorothy was very concerned about her space. Even though she liked to speak about her
personal life, she was conscious not to reveal so much about her history. She was a closed book.
Therefore, every time she realized I was prying her personal space to know more than I should
not, she shut me out. This made it slightly difficult for me as I felt some things in her history
were haunting her, denying her peace to respond effectively the medicine administered.
Social organization
Social organization refers the manner in which cultural group organizes itself around the
family group. It is imperative for nurses to note that religious values and beliefs, family structure
and organization, as well as role assignments usually relate to the ethnicity and culture of an
individual (Deyer-Berenson, 2011). Dorothy was socially organized. She valued the bonds of
family as well as her religious beliefs and practices. In fact, she used to get visitors from her
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family everyday during her admission at the health facility. In addition, students, fellow teachers
and other acquaintances also visited her at the hospital. Dorothy was a Christian Roman
Catholic. She believed in the power of prayers to heal the sick, and as such, held high hopes that
one day God would heal her from her ailment and lift the burden of arthritis from her. She
always prayed every morning after she woke up and every evening before retiring to bed, and
during any other free time she had, reciting and praying with her rosary.
Time
can be past, present, or future oriented. As such, preventive health requires some future time
orientation considering the fact that a future reward usually motivates most preventive actions.
Dorothy was past oriented, in the sense that she found difficulties in trusting in the advancements
of modern medicine to treat and cure her complications. As such, despite her confinement to a
wheelchair and admission to a health facility, she still looked up to God, rather than conventional
medicine to heal her from arthritis (Sagar, 2011). As such, she was sometimes difficult when
taking medicine, and I had to coerce her that faith without action is dead. Therefore, she was
convinced that she had to take medicine to play her part so that God could heal her through her
faith.
Environmental control
Environmental control refers to the capability of a person in controlling the nature and in
the process, plan and direct factors within the environment that affect them. In fact, a majority of
Americans believe that they can control nature to meet their personal needs. As such, they are
more likely to seek healthcare when the need arises (Giger, 2016). For instance, if a person hails
from a cultural group whereby they believe less in internal control and more in external control,
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there is a fatalistic view whereby seeking health care is perceived as useless. Unfortunately, for
my case, Dorothy hailed from a cultural background that believed more in external control. In
fact, she was convinced that her illness was her karma for all the bad things she had done in life.
Therefore, she dismissed most of the medicine offered to her arguing that only her spiritual
Biological variations
Individuals in different racial groups display biological differences and genetic variations.
Due to such differences, it is appropriate for nurses to seek knowledge concerning the general
baseline data, which is relative to the specific cultural group in order to be in a position to
provide culturally appropriate care for the patient (Cartwright & Shingles, 2011). Dorothy hailed
from a biological background whereby most of the elderly persons in her family suffered from
arthritis. As such, there was high likelihood that her ailment was more genetically engineered as
Care Plan
The care plan identifies the actual or potential nursing diagnosis, the expected client
outcomes, as well as possible therapeutic interventions. The following section diagnoses the
cultural perspective of nursing care with regard to the health of our study patient, Dorothy.
Nursing Diagnosis
As mentioned above, the study patient receiving nursing care was Dorothy Spears, a 62
years old woman suffering from acute arthritis and confined to a wheelchair. The first diagnosis
of Dorothys condition indicated that she had developed arthritis because of her old age.
However, her athletics activities during her heydays also contributed significantly to her ailing
bones. In the same regard, the arthritis gene present in her family could be presumed as well as a
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significant cause of her deteriorating health condition. Most of the elderly people in her lineage
suffered from arthritis during their old age, and as such, when the same case applied to her, it
was more of genetics at work than karma at work. However, the patient insisted that her karma
that had confined her to the wheelchair (Deyer-Berenson, 2011). Therefore, I consider that three
of her risk diagnoses had a cultural implication; these are time, environmental control, and
biological variations.
Client Outcomes
The client expected client outcomes for each diagnosis are as follows. The outcome for
communication was positive, as there was no language barrier. This would improve immediately.
The outcome for space was negative, as the patient held back some of her deepest secrets that
deterred her beliefs and trust in modern medicine. This was expected to change over some
weeks, 3 weeks at most. The outcome for social organization was positive, as the client was very
attached to her social life, such as family and religion. This would improve immediately. The
outcome for time was negative, as the client was stuck in the past orientation of time, thereby
had little or no belief in the power of conventional medicine. This was expected to change
immediately, latest in a weeks time (Sagar, 2011). The outcome for environmental control was
negative, as the patient believed that external factors had more control over her life as opposed to
internal factors. This was to change gradually, in a months time. In this regard, she considered
modern medicine as useless in combating her present predicament. The outcome for biological
variations was positive, whereby I realized that the genetic implications contributed significantly
to her present illness, there being a gene of arthritis in her family lineage. This was to be effected
immediately.
Nursing interventions
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The following are the proposed nursing interventions to apply to Dorothy following the
1. Use good communication platforms to reach out to her, make her feel comfortable and cared
2. Observe and uphold her personal space, avoiding unnecessary invasion of her privacy as
required. This will help in gaining the trust and confidence of the patient, and as such, give
3. Promote her visitations from social circles as this assists in getting control of her, by using
her closest people to speak to her and convince her to take medicine in order to cure her
condition.
4. Change her perception to time from past oriented to future oriented, as this would equally
transform her belief in modern medicine, thereby making it easier and more effective to treat
her.
5. Eliminate her fears regarding the control of external factors on her personal life, in which
Personal Reflection
After concluding this assignment, I have learnt a very important lesson regarding the
critical role of culture in the provision of appropriate nursing care to an individual. In this regard,
I believe that cultural perspectives largely control the well-being of an individual, as well as their
uptake of medicine leading to their quick recovery. In most cases, negative cultural perspectives
impede the quick healing and fast recovery of a patient as opposed to positive cultural
social organization. My cultural analysis somewhat differs from that of Dorothy. For one, I am
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future oriented as opposed to past oriented. Secondly, I believe I have internal control of the
environment as opposed to external control, and as such, believe in the power of modern
medicine. However, we also have some cultural perspectives in common, such as good command
of the English language, thereby communicating easily, upholding our personal space and
privacy, belief in impact of biological variations on our present lives, as well as surviving in a
socially enclosed setting with a lot of family members, friends and relatives.
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References
Cartwright, L. & Shingles, R. (2011). Cultural Competence in Sports Medicine. Champaign, IL:
Human Kinetics.
Davidhizar, R. & Giger, J. (2002). The Giger and Davidhizer transcultural assessment model.
Health Sciences.
Sagar, P. (2011). Transcultural Nursing Theory and Models: Application in Nursing Education,