NR 394 Week 1 Discussion: Diversity in Nursing (Graded)

Culture plays a substantial role in people’s perception of health and how they choose to treat it (Andrews et al., 2016). We hear so much about patient-centered care. To me, transcultural nursing is honing in on the idea of patient-centered care even further. In order to treat a patient at the highest level, we need to consider their background and how they perceive health. When caring for someone from a different background we need to ask ourselves: Where do they come from? What are their cultural beliefs? What’s their ethnic group? What religious beliefs do they have? What beliefs are important to them that may affect their care? One must understand a patient’s cultures and traditions in order to provide culturally competent care, and understanding cultural differences leads to better patient outcomes (Maier-Lorentz, 2008).

I have lived in the same area my entire life, so I feel comfortable caring for the people in my community. However, I plan on moving to the U.S Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico in the next 5-6 years. I have traveled the islands many times and learned about the different cultures, but I feel there is so more I will need to learn if I plan to resume nursing when I move. Caring for someone from a different culture requires a deeper understanding of their culture that can be acquired from a vacation.

I hope to learn about how to identify any bias or stereotypes I may have and bring myself a better understanding of cultural sensitivity. I feel that I do provide the same level of care regardless of the culture and background of an individual, but there are likely things that I am overlooking that if I was aware of them would lend to a better patient experience and health outcome.

References

Andrews, M., Boyle, J., & Collins, J. (2016). Transcultural concepts in nursing care (8th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.

Maier-Lorentz, M. (2008). Transcultural nursing: its importance in nursing practice. J Cult Divers, 15(1), 37–43.

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This is an excellent outlook on the topic of transcultural nursing. I absolutely love your focus on it being “patient-centered care,” yet in greater detail. I feel like this is quite accurate when discussing this form of nursing and what it truly implicates! I think that it is awesome that you hope to move to either the Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico within the next 5-6 years. If I may ask, what influenced this decision? I have heard many nurses express their desire to work as a travel-nurse, but this is my first time hearing someone share their passion to move to the Islands permanently as a nurse. Especially in your situation, you have lived in the same area all of your life, making such a move would be a drastic change, but I am sure that you would enjoy the community and the care you would provide. Thank you for being so open and honest as I look forward to learning more about transcultural nursing along with you!

“A rise in multicultural identities, with people expecting their cultural beliefs, values, and ways of life to be understood and respected by nurses and other healthcare providers.” (Leininger and McFarland, 2006). This statement is where we are currently living as far as the world is concerned and because there are a more diverse type of people both as patients and as healthcare providers, we are seeing that many people are identifying themselves in ways in which are new to many of us. Transcultural nursing to me means having the ability to understand and serve individuals of different cultural backgrounds to include other healthcare providers. I am taking this course to better understand my part in ensuring optimal care for patients and showing sensitivity toward my fellow healthcare providers, to include understanding what may be offensive to them and how to properly react when certain situations arise. In the next 8 weeks I would like to broaden my knowledge of how people from different backgrounds perceive each other and themselves and how those perceptions can affect the way they are treated within the healthcare community. Because I work with such a diverse type of people, I hope that this course will allow me to grow as a nurse and allow me to assess and help in situations that may hinder my practice.

Reference:

Andrews, M., Boyle, J., & Collins, J. (2016). Transcultural concepts in nursing care (8th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.

I agree with your statement that we are living in a time of increased in population diversity, thus forcing us to conform and treat people according to their cultural belief. In healthcare, we encounter nurses, doctors, patients, and families with different cultural backgrounds, and it becomes challenging to healthcare providers to provide care especially when there is already a language barrier. As a patient cultural differences can hinder their ability to be compliant to treatment plan because they may not necessarily understand the plan of care or they may not believe in certain treatments. As nurses we strive to provide culturally competent care thus educating ourselves to transcultural nursing is necessary to be able to understand each of our differences. According to Transcultural Nursing Society, “culturally competent care can only occur when culture care values are known and serve as the foundation for meaningful care”.

Transcultural Nursing. (2021). Transcultural Nursing Society: Many cultures one world. Retrieved from https://tcns.org/