Cultural Identity In Nursing

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For our very first week the topic was ‘Cultural Identity’ which as a class we defined culture as ‘A set of beliefs and values that contribute to one’s way of life’. Before attending the first class I knew little of what cultural identity actually meant to me it was after when I began to think more in depth about it. I was intrigued by others’ opinions in the group such as considering that some cultures may not be allowed to have certain types of medication or certain genders to provide their health care which was mentioned by Maddison Duggin (Discussion thread topic: ‘Cultural Identity’, 28/02/18). Within a nursing role it is important to be able to distinguish what culture and cultural identity refers to with each individual. As nurses we …show more content…

In a group we looked at a video explaining the concepts of health on each level; personal, as a population/community, public and global. Through exploring these levels, I have had to change my definition of health to cover a larger scale as I was looking at it as a smaller picture. As mentioned by Samar Yazdani (Discussion thread topic: ‘Concepts of Health’, 10/03/18) I too have grown up knowing health to be a balance of physical and mental health but learning of these different concepts has shown me that an individual’s behavior can influence towards their community and even on global terms which has been brought to my attention by Huiwon Kim (Discussion thread topic: ‘Concepts of Health’, 28/03/18). As a nurse we have been introduced into the health profession and need to understand the broad topic of health which could be looked at from a personal, community, public or global level which includes understanding a patient’s culture, upbringing, lifestyle and social status which varies from each individual when looking at a personal level. We were introduced to two models of health, medical and social models where medical involves the absence of diseases, providing health services and supplying specialized medicine comparing to the medical model which investigates relationships, public health and providing education to …show more content…

(https://books.google.com.au/books?id=QDFzqNZZHLMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=determinants+of+health&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwisieSqyY7aAhWMnpQKHfYxCOoQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=determinants%20of%20health&f=false)
A health professional is able to provide care that meets each individual needs no matter what their social situation is and also to provide education to their patients to promote change to their lifestyle. In agreeance with Maddison Duggin (Discussion thread topic, ‘Determinants of Health’, 14/03/18) I too believe that it is important in a nursing role to understand the differences in social determinants of health in order to connect to patients and provide the best care to improve health of individuals.

Social and environmental conditions in which people live in