Importance Of Culturally Competent Healthcare Planning

Culturally Appropriate Care Planning

As a nurse, the ultimate achievement of professional care is empowering patients to live at the highest level of health and wellness possible. Hence, nurses do not simply treat the acute healthcare needs of patients, but instead, nurses must also incorporate details that define what health and wellness means to each individual patient. According to Marzilli (2016), patients viewpoints are intertwined in their cultural upbringings, cultural expectations, and cultural lifestyles. Therefore, through anticipatory planning, the competent nurse can effectively assess and plan within the cultural context of a patient’s specific healthcare needs. By conducting culturally competent nursing care, patient outcomes

Key components of the cultural assessment include exploring what is important to the patient along with the cultural aspects that encompasses the patient and their overall health. According to Andrews and Huber (2016), a total of twelve components can be included in the comprehensive cultural assessment. These key components include: communication; health-related beliefs and practices; kinship and social networks; and religion and spirituality. Communication can vary among patients including the ability to speak the same language as the nurse, if any hearing or speech deficits exist, or if nonverbal communication is forefront. Furthermore, health-related beliefs and practice variations can be evaluated through by the way the patient and their support systems view health and illness. For some cultural groups, mental health is an off-limits subject to address; whilst, some cultures may feel illness is a punishment or a spiritual lesson. Kinship and social associations also differ among groups. Some patients may rely on family leaders to help make health decisions; while, some patients may include traditional healers in their treatment plans. Lastly, as a key component in the cultural assessment is religion and spirituality. For some patients, spirituality is vital to the healing process. Rituals, spiritual objects, and treatment alternatives may have a high impact on the patient’s view of

Hence, many healthcare workers provide care to patients in a way that is acceptable from medical viewpoints along with what is socially acceptable from past patient experiences. Likewise, individual experiences also construct how a nurse cares for patients in ways that are deemed normal and acceptable. For example, spirituality and spiritual rituals can be perceived as significant components in the healing process (Hemberg, & Vilander, 2017). As a nurse, with a strong Christian background as a former Mennonite, healing practices that my culture embraces include anointing one’s head with holy oils, large prayer groups, and fasting as spiritual ways to combat bodily ailments. My cultural background views this physical body as a weak entity with the belief that a person’s physical body may decline and die, but the spirit lives on forever. Hence, as a nurse, I promote and encourage any spiritual rituals or practices that a patient may use to develop a sense of faith, hope, and perseverance of spirituality throughout their