Assignment: Developing Professional Cultural Competence

Assignment: Developing Professional Cultural Competence

Developing Professional Cultural Competence

Countries across the world have of late experienced multicultural growth and this is mainly attributed to the rise in the global movement. Due to this, nurses and other healthcare workers have to embrace cultural diversity as they provide services to these populations (Galanti, 2014). However, one of the major challenges that affect a multicultural diverse society points at the inconsistencies in care provision that meets the high-quality needs appropriate for a given patient population. Guided by this argument, there is a need for the care providers to have adequate knowledge about the cultural beliefs and practices of the diverse communities seeking health services.

Developing professional cultural competence is key in addressing confusion, mistrust, anger as well as a host of emotions that arise due to disrespect of practices or belief systems of other communities (Lin, Lee & Huang, 2017). Even though cultural competency can be associated with a desire for empathy and mutual respect, it remains unclear on how a nurse can practice it. Therefore, basic knowledge should be substantially facilitated to be appropriate and effective in responding to the need of integrating a humanistic aspect of care into the nursing profession (Shen, 2015). The present article elaborates how to develop professional cultural competence among nurses and unravel the opportunities for career growth for nurse practitioners who demonstrate unconditional acceptance of patients regardless of their condition or status.

Professional Growth in Cultural Awareness, Cultural Knowledge, Cultural Sensitivity and

Cultural Skills

Cultural competence refers to a set of skills, values as well as principles that promote optimal interaction of people from diverse cultures. Cultural competence acknowledges respect directed to individuals from various cultures and ethnic groups. Often, culture influences the way children are raised, the manner in which families communicate, dress, and seek medical attention and how members of the community cope with issues of life. According to Loftin et al. (2013), cultural competence can be of benefit in a care setting since it allows providers to embrace culturally sensitive practices and reduce barriers related to healthcare in order to optimize quality outcomes to patients. Besides, the practice provides a platform for building an understanding about what patients would expect for comprehensive care.

In order to accept and respect people from diverse cultures, one must be aware of their beliefs and practices. Based on this premise, cultural awareness refers to an appreciation and a recognition of outer signs of diversity (Douglas et al., 2014). For example, it entails embracing another person’s art, dress, physical characteristics and music. Developing cultural awareness enables a nurse to know the values and belief systems of a given patient which in overall influences how one interacts with diverse client population. Moreover, a nurse or a care provider becomes aware about individual biases and reactions towards people so as to make necessary changes in a bid to provide equal treatment to all patients.

Showing respect and being open to diverse cultures is not only limited to appreciating the beauty of the belief system of people but it also entails having knowledge about their perception of health practices. Cultural knowledge refers to being cognizant about the base of belief, shared traditions as well as values of a given population group (Mareno & Hart, 2014). It focuses on understanding a person’s ethnicity and identifying common genetic elements that are shared by individuals who have a similar ancestry. For instance, cultural knowledge address aspects such as the manifestation of the disease, epidemiology and the effects of given medications across diverse ethnic groups (Shen, 2015). When care providers familiarize themselves with the cultural characteristics, behaviors, values, and beliefs of their patients, they are able to offer healthcare decisions to improve the quality of life.

Other than cultural knowledge, one needs to emulate cultural sensitivity. The latter entails understanding the attitudes and how culture influences the individual behavior of the patients (Kohlbry, 2016). The premise mainly focuses on the rules of interaction for a given cultural group. Cultural sensitivity, for example, is based on the communication patterns and this influences how care providers choose their language as they interact with patients. It also relates to how nurses or other care providers become aware about their attitudes and tendencies to stereotype during the provision of health services to a diverse patient population. This enables nurses to address their biases in order to provide genuine care that responds to the concerns of patients.

For one to become aware of their attitudes with regard to a given cultural practice, they need to develop a skill set that aims to increase competency. In essence, nurses will be required to explore avenues that increase their knowledge about a given culture and learn the practices that optimize care for a given population group (Loftin et al., 2013). For instances, nurses need to develop good communication skills to help them as they engage with patients from diverse cultural

backgrounds. Proper communication will enable nurses to communicate aspects of care to patients and their surrogates. Besides, through improved communication skills, a nurse will be able to translate phrases and words to non-English speaking patients as they explain the processes of care to these clients. Since hospital environment may not always be familiar to patients, it is important for a nurse to build a rapport with clients when providing medical services so as to enable them to understand plans of care (McFarland & Wehbe-Alamah, 2014). However, nurses as well need to develop leadership skills to lay a framework for the enforcement of standard codes of conduct that will inspire the team to upscale tasks assigned without any prejudice.

Opportunities for Professional Growth

Giger (2016) postulates that in the current health practices, care-transcultural nursing is a holistic approach being advocated for improved quality outcomes to patients. This is a formal area of study that provides an opportunity for nurses to expand their knowledge in identifying patterns of illnesses of people from different cultures (Reyes, Hadley & Davenport, 2013). In this premise, nurses acquire requisite skills that are essential in providing culturally competent health services through education as well as training, continued professional development and mentorship (Lin, Lee & Huang, 2017). Essentially, the transcultural nursing strategy addresses the cultural needs of patients and advocates for equal treatments. Besides, this new field in nursing proposes the inclusion of various aspects of cultural beliefs into care practices. This relates to patient practices such as diet, religion, communication and cultural safety needs which should be integrated into nursing care to optimize quality outcomes to clients.

Developing professional cultural competence offers an avenue for a nurse to provide interpreter services. This happens when the nurse has accurate and extensive knowledge about patients from given cultures (Kohlbry, 2016). The premise enhances communication between a care provider and the patient in question. However, those providing language assistance should be tested to affirm their competencies in the given cultures. This avenue of providing language assistance to patients supplements interpreter services where print materials or signage in language is mostly common and this enhances the accuracy of the information communicated.

Cultural competence provides an opportunity for the recruitment and retraining of professionals especially when members of staff from a given care facility do not have adequate knowledge about the belief systems of the patient population (Mareno & Hart, 2014). With this, a health institution will train and retain a diverse workforce that incorporates the cultural attitudes of the patient population (Douglas et al., 2014). This in overall leads to increased trust in the care provided to patients as the activities in the health settings will be tailored to address the cultural appeals of these clients.

Two Examples of Professional Growth

Due to the demand for professional cultural competence, training of staff to improve their cultural awareness and skills will be conducted (McFarland & Wehbe-Alamah, 2014). This offers an avenue for professional growth since a more in-depth analysis of a given culture shall be undertaken (Giger, 2016). Besides, consistent training will expand the knowledge base of the given staff so that they are able to offer culturally appropriate therapy options to their patients.

Cultural competence as well lays a framework for the development of linguistic competency for the administrative and operational staff (Reyes, Hadley & Davenport, 2013). This improves the interaction of health staff especially during billing of patients and consolidation of medical records in a care facility (Galanti, 2014). Moreover, linguistic competency ensures that staff members provide attentive care to patients to minimize possible instances of medication errors. In other words, documentation of care will be understood by both the care providers and the patients.

Conclusion

Professional cultural competence is an integral aspect of care as it enables nurses to prevent and combat any associated prejudice or stereotypes that could act as barriers to holistic health service. However, it requires the care providers to develop insights into cultural awareness, cultural knowledge and embrace cultural sensitivity by acquiring cultural skills relevant to a selected population group. This provides opportunities for nurses to articulate clear policy guidelines that can be used in a care facility to prevent aspects of inequalities, stereotypes, and prejudice that can compromise quality of care. Nonetheless, nurses need to be sensitive to different cultural needs of patients so that they become champions in developing interventions for people of different cultural groups.

References

Douglas, M. K., Rosenkoetter, M., Pacquiao, D. F., Callister, L. C., Hattar-Pollara, M., Lauderdale, J., … & Purnell, L. (2014). Guidelines for implementing culturally competent nursing care. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 25(2), 109-121.

Galanti, G. A. (2014). Caring for patients from different cultures. PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Giger, J. N. (2016). Transcultural Nursing-E-Book: Assessment and Intervention. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Kohlbry, P. W. (2016). The impact of international service‐learning on nursing students’ cultural competency. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 48(3), 303-311.

Lin, C. J., Lee, C. K., & Huang, M. C. (2017). Cultural competence of healthcare providers: A systematic review of assessment instruments. Journal of nursing research, 25(3), 174-186.

Loftin, C., Hartin, V., Branson, M., & Reyes, H. (2013). Measures of cultural competence in nurses: An integrative review. The Scientific World Journal, 2013.

Mareno, N., & Hart, P. L. (2014). Cultural competency among nurses with undergraduate and graduate degrees: Implications for nursing education. Nursing Education Perspectives, 35(2), 83-88.

McFarland, M. R., & Wehbe-Alamah, H. B. (2014). Leininger’s culture care diversity and universality. New York, NY: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Reyes, H., Hadley, L., & Davenport, D. (2013). A comparative analysis of cultural competence in beginning and graduating nursing students. ISRN Nursing, 2013.

Shen, Z. (2015). Cultural competence models and cultural competence assessment instruments in nursing: a literature review. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 26(3), 308-321.

Developing Professional Cultural Competence:

Included professional growth in Cultural Awareness, Cultural Knowledge, Cultural Sensitivity and Cultural Skills (one example in Cultural Awareness, one example in Cultural Knowledge, one example in Cultural Sensitivity and one example in Cultural Skills) (in text citation required)

Included three opportunities for professional growth (where you can continue to build cultural competence, give examples of each) (in text citation required)

Included two examples of professional growth (two skills you have acquired in transcultural nursing, give examples of each) (in text citation required)

Submits a Word document using correct APA format, grammar, and spelling. References and in-text citations are necessary in this paper

Use of APA level 1 headings:
Professional Growth in Cultural Awareness, Cultural Knowledge, Cultural Sensitivity and Cultural Skills
Opportunities for Professional Growth
Two Examples of Professional Growth

FYI Personally about me: White/ Caucasian near 40 year old female

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

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Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

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Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource