Culturally Competent Care Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample

Culturally Competent Care Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample

Healthcare professionals across the country deliver care to an increasing number of culturally and linguistically diverse patients. As such, problems associated with culture and language issues have been recognized as a real and imminent threat to patients’ safety in health care organizations. These problems have necessitated cultural competence to be adopted as a strategic way to offer equal and access to healthcare services and quality to patients belonging to culturally diverse groups. In general, cultural competence describes a person’s cultural sensitivity or attitudes, cultural awareness, and cultural skills and knowledge. However, within the context of health care, cultural competence refers to a professional’s understanding of how social and cultural factors shape the patients’ health behavior and beliefs and how these factors are tackled at different levels of health care delivery system to secure the quality of healthcare (Kaihlanen et al., 2019).(Culturally Competent Care Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Similarly, Lee et al. (2020) opine that healthcare staff must be equipped, ready, and willing to ensure patient safety by offering culturally sensitive care. Consequently, this post proposes a nurse’s reflections on my experience as a nurse about diversity issues in health assessments. To achieve the goal, the paper uses a case study approach by reflecting on the social-economic, spiritual, lifestyle, and other culturally-based factors using TJ’s case, a 32-year-old lesbian being examined for her annual physical exam and has been having a vaginal discharge. The patient further reports her pregnancy has been without complications admits receiving prenatal care from an obstetrician and received sperm from a local sperm bank. She is also affirmative of taking prenatal vitamins and occasionally takes over-the-counter Tylenol for aches and pain and has a strong family history of diabetes. In a nutshell, her ob-gyn case is Gravida 1; Para 0; Abortions 0. This means her gravida has had only one pregnancy, and parity indicates she has had no pregnancy reaching a viable gestational age and no abortions.(Culturally Competent Care Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Consideration on How I Would Build a Health History for the Patient

Culturally competent care demands that the provider be sensitive to the patient’s heritage, sexual orientation (in this case, TJ belongs to the minority population of LEGBIT as a lesbian), socio-economic situation, ethnicity, and cultural background to ensure stereotyping does not happen during the building of the patient’s health history. There are concerns that TJ has had no vaginal sex yet is having a discharge. Ibrahim et al. (2016) note that many pregnant women experience vaginal discharges that are either physiologic or pathologic hence the need for the provider to distinguish the vaginal infections with like serious input for pregnancy. One has to consider annoying but serious secretions, irritations, and pruritus. Armed with this knowledge, some of the questions I would ask TJ and their framing are presented here.(Culturally Competent Care Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

1. I respect your values, beliefs, and sexual orientation; what do I need to know regarding your past to provide care for you?
2. What are your family dynamics like?(Culturally Competent Care Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)
3. What do you use when having your menstrual flow?
4. What is your current gender identity?
5. What do you use to use to wash the external genital area?

      Since the patient reports no alcohol use problem, the most preferred questioning model is the CRAFFT model for Car, Relax, Alone, Forget, Family and Trouble. In addition to the five questions, I would ask the patient whether she has taken any alcohol, smoked hashish, or marijuana, or used anything else to get high in the last nine months. Part B would involve whether TJ has ever ridden in a car driven by a high driver, whether she uses drugs to relax, or whether she takes alcohol or drugs alone. Other questions are, if yes, does she forget things after being intoxicated, whether friends tell her to cut down on drug abuse, and lastly, if she has ever landed into trouble while using drugs?(Culturally Competent Care Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

What strategies can one nurse employ to be sensitive to different cultural factors while gathering the pertinent information?

Brooks et al. (2019) observe that the healthcare provider of the 2020s and beyond should have knowledge and skills to communicate with the patients culturally. To avoid stereotyping and communicate effectively with the culturally diverse patient, the clinician should be aware of various cultural sensitivities, avoid making assumptions and learn about other cultures. All along, the provider should use appropriate language to educate the patient about healthy practices.(Culturally Competent Care Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

In conclusion, the provider should be aware that cultural sensitivity in the healthcare community is no longer a choice but a necessity. As such, nurses need to work harder to learn various cultures and appreciate their differences to provide culturally competent care.(Culturally Competent Care Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

References

Brooks, L. A., Manias, E., & Bloomer, M. J. (2019). Culturally sensitive communication in healthcare: A concept analysis. Collegian, 26(3), 383-391.(Culturally Competent Care Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Ibrahim, S. M., Bukar, M., & Audu, B. M. (2016). Management of Abnormal Vaginal Discharge in Pregnancy. In Genital Infections and Infertility. IntechOpen.

Kaihlanen, A. M., Hietapakka, L., & Heponiemi, T. (2019). Increasing cultural awareness: a qualitative study of nurses’ perceptions about cultural competence training. BMC nursing, 18(1), 1-9.(Culturally Competent Care Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

Lee, S. E., Lee, M. H., Peters, A. B., & Gwon, S. H. (2020). Assessment of Patient Safety and Cultural Competencies among Senior Baccalaureate Nursing Students. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(12), 4225.(Culturally Competent Care Comprehensive Nursing Paper Sample)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/