Question

You are a female student nurse assigned to care for Mr. Habib, a male patient who is Muslim. He is recovering from surgery for prostate cancer and has a suprapubic incision. He is from Iran and has some difficulty speaking English. You know very little about the Muslim faith. You have been told that his wife is always at the bedside, and she seems very nice. One nurse tells you that she cared for the patient yesterday and that he has “something on a string around his neck.”

1. How would you familiarize yourself with Muslim beliefs as they affect health care?
2. As a female, what questions might you ask the patient about the care you plan on providing?
3. How would you best meet his spiritual and cultural needs while you care for him?

Answer 1

Every religion has their own believe and cultural practices as a Healthcare worker or nurses we are responsible to maintain the dignity and respect their belief .in this case the question itself said the patient is a Muslim background so we should have a basic idea about the culture of Muslim practices .Muslim have strong religious concept when they have contact with opposite sex. like here the patient is a male patient and they will have consideration like caring staff should be male staff especially if the patient need a treatment in a private parts ,so before treating the patient or before caring the patient should consider all these things. So we can ask question of his likes and what are all the concerns and priority based on religious so they will give explanation like if they are interested to get male staff they will request for that we can arrange based on it or some happy with female as long as it's not contact with private parts somethings their request their wife presence if the patient is treated female staff. so these are a important to know before treating patient. cultural practices has great importance in carrying a patient so we should understand all these things before treating the patient