Nursing Business Cultural Competences

Question: Discuss about thr Nursing for Business Cultural Competences. Answer: Cultural safety is an integral part of nursing practices in health care setting. Cultural safety is the effective and safe nursing practice of a nurse from different cultural background, which is determined by another person. Ensuring cultural safety is one of the key responsibilities of a nurse. Nurses deal with patients from diverse background and they have to establish a satisfactory therapeutic relationship with the patients; thus, they need cultural competence for providing patients culturally competent and equal treatment (Arieli et al. 2012). Being a nurse in Australia, I have to deal with diverse range of patient and have to ensure the absence of discrimination in the care settings. For evaluating my cultural competence in nursing care delivery, I have selected Muslim women in Australia, as the diverse group of care user. Grossman et al. (2012) depicted that culture plays a key role in shaping the health beliefs, values and behaviors in a health care setting. It has been revealed in several studies that inadequately handled cross-cultural issues are affecting the health care delivery by nurses significantly, leading to the negative health outcomes of patients. However, we face many barriers to provide effective and culturally safe services to my chosen users group. I have revealed that, Australia is a multilingual and multicultural community; however, there is a mono-cultural Anglo Australian approach that dominates the entire healthcare system. I have practiced in Queensland, where the Muslim population is greater in proportion; I have revealed that the cultural variations of the Muslim patients made the application of medical rules and regulation harder for us. One key barrier with these patients is communication issues. As approximately 70% of the Muslim women in Australia belong to non-English lin guistic background, effective communication is hindered with us (Gerlach 2012). Hindrance of effective communication within nurse and patient enhances the rate of medication errors, misinterpretation of health care advice and dissatisfaction of the patient. The second important barrier of delivering cultural safe practice to the Muslim women in Australian healthcare framework is their dietary boundaries. Muslim women are not permitted to consume some very common foods delivered to the patients at hospital like pork. This is very common non-vegetarian ingredients to common western foods like bacon, gelatin or ham in care settings. Non-compliance to their food culture leads to patients dissatisfaction, thereby lowering their health outcomes. In addition, Muslim women are permitted to consume only halal meat, which is not always followed in hospital food guidelines (Jeffreys 2015). I have also observed another challenge to deal with the Muslim women patients. According to their religious belief, they have to wash their hands before and after taking their every meal. It is quite difficult for a patient, who is bed ridden. They are not permitted to intake any medication that consist alcohol. It is very difficult for the us to deal with some situations, where a patients health requirement needs alcoholic drugs, but the patient is not allowed to have it. However, then I have to request the physician to prescribe some alternative medication for the patient to prioritize the patients religious value. Another challenging feature of working with Muslim women is that these patients are not permitted to expose their body parts in front of others, especially in front of a person of opposite gender (Kirmayer 2012). Thus, it was difficult for a nurse to deal with a patient experiencing some sexual reproductive issues. Another concern related to the Muslim patient is their r eligious fasting, which is difficult to be allowed in a hospital settings or if the patient is suffering from malnourishment (Akhu-Zaheya and Alkhasawneh 2012). However, disallowing them is a practice against patients moral rights. In core Muslim culture, the community is male dominated and women are not allowed to take medical assistance without having the permission from the male head of the family. While dealing with the patients, I have also observed that Muslim women do not have sufficient awareness about the necessary aspects of health and well being. Due to these reasons, it is difficult for me as well as other practitioners to involve the patients effectively in their health care planning. Thus, their cultural awareness should be improved for aligning their perspective with the modern medical services, which would help me to provide adequate health care services in a culturally safe way. While handling patients, I have to address and prioritize their unique health and personal needs. I have always tried to solve the issues raised while working with Muslim women in my work setting, through my critical thinking skills after evaluating the situation and priorities of the patient. I always show respect and dignity towards patients religious belief, while interacting with them. During my working period in Queensland, I have undergone a multicultural and multilinguistic training for enhancing my potential of communication with Muslim women, who are from non-English background (Kirmayer 2012). I always review patients background and history before interacting with the patient, it helps me to use my critical thinking skill and plan the framework of therapeutic relationship establishment. While assisting my female Muslim patients in their ADLs, I tried to maximize their privacy and tried to show a culturally neutral attitude. From my perspective, showing cultural competence t owards the patients improves their adherence and compliance with the health care practices. I always use my non-verbal skills, which are effective to communicate with patients, while facing communication difficulties with a Muslim woman. I believe in reviewing the cultural needs of a patient before initiating healthcare intervention. It helps me to prioritize my patients overall needs and thereby making them satisfied. For example, planning a Muslim patients meal time in such a way, that would not interfere her pray time, as they need to pray 5 times a day. I try to prioritize patients right, as it is essential for improving the quality of health care, according to the principle of Treaty and Waitangi. I also reflect my perspectives upon my colleagues for improving the quality of overall health care delivery system in our organization. I have dealt a patient, who was 79 years old and having impaired mobility, thus she needed assistance in bathing. However, she refused to take assistance, as she was not willing to expose her body parts in front of other person. I have not argued with the patient, rather with a polite eye contact, I tried to make the patient understand about her health risk of not taking assistance and attempted to maximize her privacy during bath by assigning female support worker and providing autonomy in bathroom, as much as possible. Instead of my skillful application of handling such contemporary situations, one time I had to administer an alcoholic drug to a Muslim patient, as it was required for her survival. As a responsible nurse, I would also take part in advocating the care users of my selected diverse group to cooperate with the health care system via effective cross-cultural communication. I will advise them to follow the rules and regulations of health care system through an in-depth interaction with nurse and other health care providers. I would ensure their cultural safety and would promote the importance of understanding cross-cultural communication in heath care practice. In contrast, I will give advice to the nursing staffs to prioritize patients cultural needs with respect and dignity, while avoiding any kind of gender or racial discrimination in health care context. In conclusion, I would say that, I have all the essential skills to ensure my patients cultural security and safety in the healthcare context. I would always prioritize Muslim cultural aspects, while working with Muslim women, as well as would advocate them to adhere with the health care processes, as it will improve their health outcomes. Reference List Akhu-Zaheya, L.M. and Alkhasawneh, E.M., 2012. Complementary alternative medicine use among a sample of Muslim Jordanian oncology patients. Complementary therapies in clinical practice, 18(2), pp.121-126. Arieli, D., Friedman, V.J. and Hirschfeld, M.J., 2012. Challenges on the path to cultural safety in nursing education. International Nursing Review, 59(2), pp.187-193. Gerlach, A.J., 2012. A critical reflection on the concept of cultural safety.Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 79(3), pp.151-158. Grossman, S., Mager, D., Opheim, H.M. and Torbjornsen, A., 2012. A bi-national simulation study to improve cultural awareness in nursing students.Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 8(8), pp.e341-e346. Jeffreys, M.R., 2015. Teaching cultural competence in nursing and health care: Inquiry, action, and innovation. Springer Publishing Company. Kirmayer, L., 2012. Rethinking cultural competence. Transcultural Psychiatry, 49(2), p.149.