Transcript Cultural considerations for nursing care

Cultural considerations
for nursing care
Cultural Considerations
• Necessary for holistic assessment
•
Culture incorporates customs, beliefs, values and
attitudes shared by a group of people and passed down
through generations
•
Disparities in health status exist among different
cultural groups
Transcultural Nursing
• Roots in early 1900s; public health nurses cared for
immigrants from Europe who came from many different
cultural backgrounds
• Madeleine Leininger (1940s) saw importance of nursing
care that was based on a client’s culture (unique values,
beliefs, practices and life ways)
– First nurse to have PhD in anthropology
• Josepha Campinha-Bacote (2002) developed the model
for process of developing cultural competence
Cultural Awareness
• Involves self-examination and in-depth exploration of
one’s own beliefs and values as they influence behavior
(e.g. understanding your own cultural background,
influences, and biases)
• Cultural awareness is necessary in order to provide
culturally competent care
Cultural blindness & ethnocentrism
• Cultural blindness: occurs when nurse doesn’t
recognize his/her own beliefs and practices, nor the
beliefs and practices of others
• Ethnocentrism: The idea that one’s own ways are the
only or the best way to behave or do things
Cultural Knowledge
• Information about organizational elements of diverse
cultures and ethnic groups; emphasis is on learning
about the client’s worldview from an emic (native)
perspective
• Etic: The professional or outsider’s views and values
about a phenomenon
• Nurses can’t know all there is to know about a culture,
but they need to know where and how to get information
about different cultures!
Elements of a Cultural Assessment
1.
Communication: e.g., styles, eye contact, verbal and
non-verbal etc.
2.
Space and personal contact: e.g., comfort levels with
“personal space”, acceptability of touching another
person, etc.
3.
Time: very important in Western culture, not
necessarily so in other cultures
Elements of a Cultural Assessment
• 4. Social organization:
– family patterns
– cultural values can determine communication within family
and attitudes towards children and older people
– religious beliefs
– decision-making
• 5.
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Biologic variations:
e.g., disease incidence in certain groups
sickle cell, Tay-Sachs, lactose intolerance, etc.
differences in responses to drugs
herbal remedies
Elements of a Cultural Assessment
6. Environmental control:
–
refers to relationship between environment and health
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Magico-religious: illness as a supernatural
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Biomedical: disease/illness caused by microorganisms
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Humoral: looks for balance or harmony with nature;
phenomenon, e.g., “evil spirits”
or malfunction of the body
e.g., healthy body is characterized by evenly distributed
warmth; illness results when the body is attacked by an
increase or decrease in hot or cold
AVOID STEREOTYPING
• Individual families may have their own roles, beliefs, and
practices that differ from the larger cultural group
• Younger family members may be more acculturated to
Western patterns than are older family members
• There are also many regional variations
Acculturation and Assimilation
• Acculturation:
– learning the ways to exist in a new culture
– learning to drive, going to school, using public
transportation
– interacting in an environment unlike that of home
country
• Assimilation:
– when individuals or groups identify more strongly with
the dominant culture in values, activities, and daily
living
– happens often when children grow up in dominant
culture