Question

Include how you provide patient-centered care and patient advocacy-especially providing culturally competent care for diverse patients and communities. How do you promote patient rights?

Answer 1

From the time of admission untill the patient gets discharged and leaves the health care center, nurses' spend quite a significant amount of time with the patients. It has become a necessity for the nurses to provide culturally competent care because they deal with a lot a people across different culture and ethinicity. There are a number of ways to provide patient centered culturally competent care for diverse patients and communities which are explained below.

AWARENESS : Being an integral part of the health care team and being the one who spents a lot of their time with the patients, the nurse must first understand the importance of cultural competence and why it is necessary to provide a culturally competent care to the patient. The nurse must also encourage his/her co-workers in providing culturally competent care which will help to increase the awareness.

STOP MAKING ASSUMPTIONS : It is very important that the nurse must stop making assumptions of cultures that they are not familiar with. Instead ask the patient about his/her cultural believes without forgetting to be a good listener. This can help the nurse to start a better therapuetic relationship with the patient and thereby a better therapeutic communication and this will aid the nurse in providing  a culturally competent care.

LEARN ABOUT OTHER CULTURES: Exploring other cultures is very significant in providing culturally competent care. A better knowledge about the beliefs of different culture and traditions that they follow helps the nurse to communicate with the patient better. A better communication helps the nurse to plan the care to be provided based on the needs of the patient which will reflect in patient's health in a positive way. In order to learn more about different culture, the nurse can make use of book available on  cultural beliefs or through observation of people who belong to differnt culture by visiting areas where that paricular culture is dominant.

ACTIVE LISTENING : Listen actively to what the patient says without being judgemental. This lets the patient to feel that he is being heard and helps in developing trust with the nurse. Thus active listening helps in mataining better rapport with the patient and also help the nurse to provide care bassed on the needs o0f the patient.

BUILD TRUST AND RAPPORT :To build trust and rapport with the patient try to speak slowly and make sure to use simple words instead of complicated medical terms and also make sure to check if the patient understands whatever is being said to him/her. It is important to build trust with the patient however this become tedious especially when there is a language barrier. In such circumstances if the message to be said is complex take the help of an interpreter who will be able to explain it to the patient.

EDUCATE ABOUT MEDICAL PRACTICES : Explain to the patient regarding any procedures in an understandable  way before taking conset. Make sure that they understood what was spoken to them. Be patient enough to explain again until the patient has clarity about the procedure.

Providing a culturally competent care will thus help the nurse to promote patient's right