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Cultural differences and intercultural communication
Cultural differences and intercultural communication
Cultural differences vs cross cultural communications
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Cultural competency can be described as the ability to interact with different cultures in a positive manner. Many cultural differences can become apparent in a number of situations. According to Fadiman, doctors have a moral duty to save lives even if they don’t agree with the values or beliefs of someone else’s culture (1997). This paper will address the topic of cultural competency, with a concentration on the importance of cultural competency in the medical field. It is hard to imagine how frustrating it may be to come across a patient that resists a professional’s opinion because they have solid beliefs or do not understand what doctors are attempting to convey.
The story “Summer” written by David Updike captures the title completely. The story is about the summer month of August for the story’s main protagonist, Homer. Homer is a young man who is out of school for the summer and is looking to get away from his family for a little while to gain his sanity back. Homer spends his August with the Thyme family at their lake house. The Thyme family, consisting of the known characters: Fred, Sandra, and Mrs. Thyme, are family friends of Homer and are very comfortable with one another; in fact, Homer describes himself at one point as being their “surrogate son”.
Medical providers that have cultural competency will overall enhance the quality of care to a diverse group of patients. Having that cultural knowledge would help the medical provider make the patient feel comfortable ultimately increasing the chance for that patient to follow through or adhere to the medical provider's treatment plan. It would also allow the medical provider to help build a friendly nurturing relationship with all of his or her patients. Developing these friendly relationships with patients will help make the patient worry less about a difficult diagnosis and would give them hope that they could one day get better from it. When a medical provider is culturally competent they would know how to respond to certain medical scenarios
In nursing school, students were introduced to the idea of cultural competence. It is a concept that I am familiar with due to my cultural background. Being respectful and aware of the beliefs and values of other traditions cannot be neglected and ignored. We are all global citizens that hold different views and perspectives, therefore leaders must equip themselves with the understanding that people expect and will act differently based on their cultural beliefs.
If nurses lack of understanding regarding community demographics and cultural differences, they can have unintentional bias, and stereotype patients due to a lack of awareness of the cultural demographics of the community they serve (Camphinha-Bacote, 2011). Cultural competence is the understanding of different cultures and how that impacts the provision of patient care. Cultural competence in nursing is defined as one willingness or the desire to understand a patient’s culture, the ability to learn about a defined cultures belief system, and to work effectively as a healthcare provider understanding the dynamics of the patient’s culture as it relates to their relationships and care (Kardong-Edgren et Al.,
Cultural competency is increasingly important in healthcare today. In America today, we are facing a lot of tension between cultures today. America is a very diverse country with many cultures co-existing and in order to properly care for patients professionals need to be able to understand and tend to their cultural needs. Whether it be a difference in language, understanding that someone is a veteran and how that may affect them psychologically, or any other set of circumstances that surround a specific culture. Having the knowledge and resources that cater to different cultures makes for better experiences across the board and, consequently, makes for more effective healthcare visits.
“Why is it crucial as a student to learn about cultural competency”? The reason is due to the increasing cultural diversity in the United States. This increasing cultural diversity in the United States has resulted in the national health objective proposed in Healthy People 2020: achieving the highest level of health for all people by addressing societal inequalities and “historical and contemporary injustices” (Giddens, 2013, pp. 33). The belief is that all people deserve quality health care and access to care no matter what culture the individual may be.
The world is a diverse population, with people coming from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds. A person’s views, values, and traditions determine their daily needs and practices. So, healthcare providers face certain challenges and restrictions because a patient’s belief may inhibit professionals from providing the most effective care. Therefore, cultural competence is an important idea for healthcare providers to consider when understanding and respecting patients. Balcazar, Suarez-Balcazar, and Taylor-Ritzler (2009) noted in “Cultural competence:
In order to provide adequate care for patients of diverse populations, it is essential for nurses to understand different cultures. This will help nurses to better communicate and interact with patients. In order to achieve culturally competent care, the patients’ values, beliefs, and perspective must be considered. It is important for nurses to be aware of their own cultural values and biases that may exist towards cultural groups that are different from their own. As a result, it is essential for patients to be granted the opportunity to explore various options when given care.
Great points Seema, as per Giger (2013), nurse practitioners are expected to prepare to provide culturally fitting nursing care for their clients, regardless of cultural background. You are right in order to deliver appropriate nursing care they should know the important factors that affect person’s health and illness behaviors. Accurate cultural assessment can give an insight about behaviors that might otherwise be guessed negatively. If the cultural behaviors are not appropriately recognized, their significance will be confusing to the nurse. The main inspiration, for knowing culture is that culture is intertwined with an individual’s health beliefs, values, preferences and practices.
Definitely, language barrier between the healthcare staff and the patient can hinder the appropriate delivery of care. What happen if you do not have a nursing staff that has the same background of the patient? As a culturally competent nurse, you know that there are other avenues to resolve that, like using a hospital interpreter or using a phone line for linguistic help. Spector (2013) stated that the Joint Commission of Hospital Accreditation and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services obligate that all health care providers be “culturally competent.” According to her, cultural competency entails that the health care provider understands and attends to the totality of the patient’s situation and it will need the combination of knowledge, attitudes, and skills.
Madeline Leininger’s Cultural Care Diversity and Universality Theory, deals with the impact of culture on health and healing. In health care today, a nurse must deal with people from many backgrounds, cultures, and ethnic origins. Transcultural nursing is practiced throughout nursing when caring for people from different cultures. The purpose of Leininger’s theory is to produce knowledge related to nursing care of people from diverse nationalities, who value their ethnic heritage and culture. Leininger’s theory recognized and understood cultural differences and similarities while caring for patients of different backgrounds.
Cultural competency: Indians Culture competency is defined as one has the knowledge, the abilities and the skill to deliver care congruent with the patient’s cultural beliefs and practices (Purnell, 2013). As a nurse or a health care provider, increasing ones consciousness of culture diversity improves the possibilities for health care practitioners to provide competent care (Purnell, 2013). Nurses and all health care providers should be aware of other cultures to provide the best care that they can for that individual. Developing a relationship with diverse cultural groups involves good interpersonal skills and the application of knowledge and techniques learned from the physical, biological, and social sciences as well as the humanities (Purnell, 2013). I am choosing to select the Indian culture for my first assignment.
A cultural competency decrease the cultural sensitive issue and elevates the therapeutic nurse-client relationship. The possible challenge for a nurse while providing cultural sensitive care could be unable to acquire in-depth culture knowledge, lack of experience and fear. To address these challenges, a nurse should obtain obtain broad knowledge of how culture can
The way a person thinks about health, “whether that is our ‘philosophy’, our ‘worldview’, our ‘framework’ influences what we do as individuals in practice,” as well as how we deliver the health service. These elements allow us to think about healthcare in our own culturally acceptable way, this isn’t always an acceptable way of delivering the service to people with views different to our own. Cultural competence is an approach that aids in influencing the service and the education of healthcare professionals. (Taylor, K., & Guerin, P., 2010). Cultural competence is defined as a knowledge and understanding of cultures, histories and contemporary realities and awareness of protocols, combined with the proficiency to engage and work effectively in a cultural context congruent to the expectations of the people of that culture.
