Question

What assessment strategies would you use to assure culturally competent nursing care?

Answer 1

Nurses are directly connected to the patient.Nursing is a nurturing profession and caring is the essential component of its holistic practice, especially with the critically ill patient. Nurses should take care of the patient without any biases. Nurses increase cultural competence by directly interacting with patients from different cultural backgrounds. The main process of understanding about the patient problem is the language, so sometimes there is a language problem due to the cultural or regional difference. To avoid this there should be language interpretation made available at all times to avoid miscommunication and misunderstanding by both the woman and her health care providers. Having knowledge of the patient’s cultural perspectives enables the nurse to provide more effective and appropriate care.

Empathy is the quality for nurses to adopt for cultural competency and patient may feel free to share or discuss his/her problem to the nurse. This requires that nurses view problems or situations from the patients’ cultural perspectives. This gives patients a sense of security, knowing that their cultural ways are understood and appreciated by their nurses caring for them. Nurses should be frank so that pateint can easily communicate with them. Nurses should develop their plan of care with their patients in order to derive mutual goals that are compatible with their cultural norms. Patients will develop trust with their nurses and be comfortable with the nursing care plan because it is consistent with their cultural values and practices. They will likely adhere to the plan of care because they feel respected for their different cultural practices, promoting a positive outcome.