challenges of multicultural societies

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Question 1

Contemporary societies are highly multi-cultural, which is making it more challenging for nurses to serve everyone satisfactorily. Different cultures usually come with differing healthcare preferences, which matter a lot during care provision. Individual beliefs, the values they uphold, and their attitudes must be considered for the care provided to reflect expected outcomes. There is a high demand for nurses to be culturally competent (Stanhope, Faan, Lancaster & Faan, 2019). Like other healthcare givers, nurses are required to have a good masterly of cultural concepts to enable them to prevail in delivering care in environments with diverse cultures.

One of the necessary concepts for providing nursing care in the contemporary healthcare system is culturally sensitive communication. If the approach presented by nurses fails to reflect cultural aspects, a negative impact and lack of satisfaction on those being served are sure. In applying this concept, there is a need to demonstrate an understanding and respect for the patient. This is likely to promote satisfaction not only for the patient but also their family. As a nurse, I would apply both verbal and non-verbal communication to establish individual needs. At the same time, there is the need to refrain from generalizing and stereotyping, as this is bound to derive erroneous conclusions. However, it does not mean that a care provider should not reflect their own values and beliefs (Andres & Bolye, 2016). They should but along professionalism with a deep consideration of the diversity of traditions and perspectives.

The above approach to communication should be built along with the concept of cultural assessment. This calls for the application of transcultural assessment models to identify preferences exhibited by patients and thereby serve them accordingly. There are several models that can be followed, but the foundation is for a caregiver first to assess his/her preferences, and biases. They also need to consider their own values, their attitudes and beliefs (Andres & Bolye, 2016). After this is accomplished, it becomes easy to employ an appropriate model to map how best to help a patient.

Question 2

The tendency of people to either be ill or healthy is determined by several factors. These range from social factors, biology and genetics, and individual behaviour factors. Interaction of these factors influences the nature of health in each society. Social factors relate to the physical conditions that characterize the environment in which individuals dwell in. This includes place of birth and work, generally where people spend most of their time (DeVoe, Bazemore, Cottrell, Likumahuwa-Ackman, Grandmont, Spach & Gold, 2016). People living within environments that are unhealthy for an instant where there are pollutants are likely to be affected by diseases. Where the air is polluted, the prevalence of airborne diseases would be high.

Individual behaviour also influences how people’s health turns out to be. This involves their lifestyle habits like eating and substance abuse. People who stop smoking are likely to minimize the chances of developing heart diseases, among other complications that come with the habit. This explains why public health a focus on measures has to change their individual lifestyle behaviours. Next, we have biology and genetics factors, which makes some people be more vulnerable than others (DeVoe et al., 2016). A good example is on the age where the aging are at a higher risk of illnesses compared to the young. Others are born with conditions that make them more susceptible to ill-health than others; for instance, those who are born with sickle cell genes.

Question 3

Refugees and immigrants form a substantial population with unique cultures different from what nurses and the general healthcare fraternity is accustomed to. Misinterpretation concerning behaviours that are linked to an individual’s culture is likely to present erroneous or unsatisfactory intervention. This calls for interventions that are specific and culturally sensitive. One culturally sensitive intervention aspect is for care providers to be good active listeners. This ensures that they understand and validate what the patient communicates to them. Through active listening, nurses can avoid working along with assumptions but consider and consider the cultural background of each patient. Another way is to build trust and good rapport with patients. This works as when patients trust the caregiver; they will be more likely to offer full cultural-oriented information crucial to assist them better. It is also necessary to avoid instances of generalization and to stereotype. A group of people can be refugees but of unique cultures (Cagle & Well, 2017). As such, culturally sensitive intervention is patient-centred and is customized for each patient. Cultural barrier is often an issue with refugees; it is necessary first to find a way to break the language barrier.

Question 4

Cultures differ in terms of language, the beliefs and practices which define who people are and their preferences. Individuals from different cultures can exhibit significant differences. Therefore, cultural concepts present challenges of interaction and care delivery, which inform the development of transcultural nursing (Andres & Boyle, 2016). Transcultural nursing has its primary objective being to promote and facilitate congruent, appropriate and quality care. This calls for nurses to develop cultural competency necessary to enable them to handle culturally diverse patients. Nurses must understand and acknowledge the issue of diversity in race and ethnicity (Andres & Boyle, 2016). Issues of religion and traditions have to be taken into account as nurses embrace acculturation.

References

Andres, A.M. & Bolye, J.S. (2016).  Transcultural Concepts in Nursing Care (7th ed.).  ISBN 978-1-4511-9397-8

Cagle, C., & Wells, J. N. (2017). Culturally Sensitive Care. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 21(1).

DeVoe, J. E., Bazemore, A. W., Cottrell, E. K., Likumahuwa-Ackman, S., Grandmont, J., Spach, N., & Gold, R. (2016). Perspectives in primary care: a conceptual framework and path for integrating social determinants of health into primary care practice.

Stanhope, M., Faan, R. D., Lancaster, J., & Faan, R. P. (2019). Public Health Nursing E-Book: Population-Centered Health Care in the Community. Elsevier Health Sciences.