Cultural Assessment In Nursing

As a practicing nurse, I have often witnessed stringent and meticulous health advise being given to patients by healthcare providers. However, when the patient returns weeks or months later, the advice is seemingly not heeded and poor health outcomes are instead seen. One must wonder if better outcomes would be achieved if a more in-depth cultural assessment was conducted before healthcare planning commenced. Individually, each person views many health altering factor differently. These viewpoints are intertwined in the cultural upbringings, cultural expectations, and cultural lifestyles of each patient (Marzilli, 2016). The purpose of this discussion board post is to define cultural diverse assessments, briefly list and explain the twelve

Nurses can use the process, of diverse assessment, to gather information that identifies what is culturally important to the patient. Through anticipatory planning, the competent nurse can effectively work within the cultural context of an individual’s specific needs. This process can help the nurse to better understand, plan, and evaluate towards the overall health and wellness of the patient. Considerations such as lack of understanding, gaps in provisions of health insurance, lack of culturally sensitive care, and misunderstanding of cultural norms and values are all barriers that patients face routinely. Therefore, to help dissolve some of these challenges, community health promotion and maintenance programs can be researched, planned, and built to provide cultural competent care for a whole community (Andrews & Boyle,

Furthermore, twelve key components of a comprehensive cultural assessment were discovered and included: incidence of biocultural variation and disease prevalence; communication; cultural affiliations; cultural sanctions and restrictions; developmental considerations; economics; educational background; health-related beliefs and practices; kinship and social networks; nutrition; religion and spirituality; and values orientation. To help facilitate the cultural assessment process, through the building of strong patient and nurse relationship, five communication principles can be used. These basic principles of communication included mutual respect, harmonized goals, a supportive environment, transparency and full disclosure, and continuous learning. In the end, by properly assessing the patient’s cultural embeddedness, treatment plans can be improved, and successful patient health outcomes will surely