Teaching Cultural Competence in Nursing

Question: Discuss about the Teaching Cultural Competence in Nursing. Answer: Introduction: In a multicultural healthcare environment, the way in which I will conduct myself or serve my patients will be largely determined by the cultural identity I possess. The cultural backgrounds of the healthcare provider may have a positive or a negative impact on the life of a patient. I have been born in the Temne community that is the largest ethnic group consisting of a huge mass of people residing in Sierra Lione. The people of my community have always preserved their memories of the African tradition, that has enabled the members like us remain compassionate towards any African community. Even though the patients I will need to serve belong to African communities other than the Temne community, I will still be able to serve them well. It will be easier for me to empathize with the people of a broader cultural group easily. However, ethnically I am a Temne community member, and my language shares much resemblance with the languages of other Aboriginal communities as well. This will enable me to converse with much ease with the patients of different communities (Jeffreys, 2015). The community members of the Aboriginal classes will be very familiar with the medical jargons I will use. However, in a multicultural community, this can also prove to be disadvantageous, as I will not be able to use complex medical jargons, with much ease and spontaneity, important for communicating with people of different communities (Blais, 2015). As far and my religion and spirituality are concerned, I would like to share that I was born in a Muslim-Christian family (Weller et al., 2014). Though I got myself converted to Christian religion only, the impact of the Islam religion nevertheless remained to influence my mind. For example, although my mother being a Christian was somewhat liberal, my mindset was a little conservative, lacking in radical idea. One very important aspect of the Muslim community is that they do not usually approve of cross-gender friendship, and consequently I have grown up to be an individual who usually prefers to stay aloof from the opposite gender groups. However, this particular aspect can potentially detract me from assuming the role of a successful culturally safe practitioner. This is because I cannot go along or interact with men of my own or any other community, and I am culturally prejudiced against opening up to people of my opposite sex in the public. This can be disadvantageous as I will not be able to interact with the male patients or the male family members of the patients with much ease, and this will obstruct our communication process. However, the Christian influence on my mothers side cannot be totally ruled out here. Since my mother has often taught me the preaching of her religion, I started growing up as an individual who was less bothered about the religious distinctions among men, and believed in the power of the greater humanity (Byrd Clayton, 2016). This will potentially benefit me, as a broader outlook in life will enable me to serve people belonging to various communities in an efficient way. I am not culturally prejudiced to believe that some religions or castes are superior to others. I believe that as a healthcare expert, I have the ethical obligation to serve any individual, no matter which community or culture he is affiliated to (Grol et al., 2013). Again, an important part of my spirituality constitutes my faith in the power of nature in healing and curing people and restoring health to the ailing ones. Thus, in a culturally diverse set-up, I am likely to recommend Western medicines as well as special, natural herbs that can restore a person to health. In most of the situations, a healthcare expert fails to understand or even appreciate the role of natural herbs in restoring health to a person, and their insistence on Western medicines often hurt the sentiments of the Aboriginal class of people (Truong et al., 2015). I have a liberal perspective about this, and I do acknowledge the importance of both the forms of treatment. This can enhance my acceptability amongst the people of different cultural groups. Cultural competence is necessary in treating the Muslim patients, and having myself belonged to the Islamic community, I posses comprehensive knowledge about the ramifications of the Islamic faith and Islamic beliefs needed fo r clinical practices. I am well aware of the cultural prejudices of the people of Islamic religion, and thus I am less likely to recommend them pork diet or medicines containing alcohol. Having belonged to a family of two cultures, I have been able to gain a comprehensive understanding of the cultural ideas and beliefs of both the Eastern as well as the Western religions. However, while the Christian religion has enhanced my nurturing skills, being brought up in a conservative family, I am culturally biased against men. I would need to improve these skills so that I can work more efficiently in a culturally diverse set-up. Reference List: Blais, K. (2015).Professional nursing practice: Concepts and perspectives. Pearson. Byrd, W. M., Clayton, L. A. (2015).An American health dilemma: Race, medicine, and health care in the United States 1900-2000(Vol. 2). Routledge. Grol, R., Wensing, M., Eccles, M., Davis, D. (Eds.). (2013).Improving patient care: the implementation of change in health care. John Wiley Sons. Jeffreys, M. R. (2015).Teaching cultural competence in nursing and health care: Inquiry, action, and innovation. Springer Publishing Company. 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