Week 1 Discussion: Diversity In Nursing (Graded)

Hello Class and Professor, 

According to Kılınc and Altun (2018), transcultural nursing refers to a substantive nursing area that focuses on the global cultural beliefs, practices, needs, and preferences of individuals or groups of different or similar cultures. The specialty combines nursing (care) and anthropology (culture). With the soaring multicultural population, nurses must offer holistic and individualized care to their patients. One of the cornerstones of culturally congruent healthcare is the ability to be aware of the cultural trends while respecting each patient’s values and beliefs (Kaihlanen, Hietapakka, and Heponiemi, 2019). Overall, the essay presents the significance and the need to promote transcultural nursing with the health facility. 

Why Did You Decide to Take This Course?

Due to the ever-increasing multicultural American population, transcultural nursing has become a key component in the healthcare. The United States is more diverse than 10 years ago; the population of Asian, Latino, and African Americans has been growing steadily, while that of the Whites has declined (Vespa, Armstrong, & Medina, 2018). The U.S Census Bureau projects that by 2060, 60% of the population will be made of persons from ethnicities other than the non-Hispanic Whites. Therefore, as a future professional health worker, I will need to attain cultural competency knowledge to appreciate and recognize cultural differences in healthcare beliefs, values, and customs. With this knowledge, I will be able to provide culturally sensitive care to patients, particularly those who are refugees, immigrants, or migrants. Also, the knowledge will help determine if, for example, the health beliefs and values of a patient relate to the cause of their illness. 

What you would like to learn in the 8 weeks?

In these weeks, I intend to learn transcultural constructs, framework, and theories underpinning the school of nursing. I would be happy to learn how social determinants of health affect health disparities and how healthcare systems influence their ability to provide healthcare to a culturally diverse population. I also look forward to understanding the various cultures within the American healthcare, and how the behavior of a patient is influenced by their cultural backgrounds. For instance, one patient may consider your sitting close to them as an invasion to their personal space, while another view it as an expression of caring and warmth. Lastly, I am eager to learn on the best way to avoid stereotyping when handling a patient with different cultural preferences and beliefs. 

How do you hope this course will help you in your clinical practices?

The course will provide me with the necessary transcultural knowledge to be sensitive to patients’ values, customs, needs, and preference from different cultures. The theoretical knowledge that will be acquired in this course will help me relate cultural competencies with evidence-based practice, enabling me to become a competent, culturally-based nursing practitioner in the future. As a result of this, I will be able to give my patients holistically and culturally congruent care. Transcultural nurses have been found to offer excellent services to their patients than their counterparts who do not adopt the practice (Tosun and Sinan, 2020).

Conclusion

Transcultural nursing is important in daily nursing clinical practices. Culturally congruent healthcare is not a privilege but a basic human right. Therefore, the caregivers must recognize the preferences and values of their patients derived from their culture. The inclusion of cultural contents in nursing curricula is of utmost significance. The curriculum should instill in students an appreciation for cultural differences in nursing. Health facilities such as hospitals should provide nurses with in-service programs on cultural competency. 

What Does Transcultural Nursing mean to me?

              According to Leininger, Transcultural nursing has been defined as a legitimate and formal area of study, research, and practice, focused on culturally based care beliefs, values, and practices to help cultures or subcultures maintain or regain their health (wellbeing) and face disabilities or death in culturally congruent and beneficial caring ways (Leininger, 1970, 1978, 1991).  Transcultural nursing to me means, providing patient care with with no prejudice, racism, or discrimination. It also means to be unbiased and to understand that all of my patients are different and could have different beliefs and as a caregiver I should be aware of the differences and take it into consideration when assessing my patients for the first time. As a caregiver I should build my care plan and education plan on the patients specific needs and beliefs with out judgment. Being a nurse for only one year and the difference of care I learned to give using culturally congruent nursing care prior to this class is essential to every caregivers future.   

Why did I decide to take this course?

              I Decided to take this class because it seemed the best fit for my future as a caregiver. After the first week,  I am so excited to see what else I will be learning. I never sat and really thought about how much there is to learn about different cultures from religions to disabilities, languages and beliefs etc. I am sure 8 weeks is no where near enough time to take all this in. I look forward to see what other steps I could take to continue my education in transcultural nursing.

Explain what I would like to learn in the next 8 weeks?

I would like to learn on how starting my assessments using organizational Cultural Competence.  According to the National Center for Cultural Competence, cultural competence requires that organizations have certain type of characteristics (Andrews, 2016, p.46). I think taking this course will definitely help me improve in my career and in my everyday life as a Nurse. It is always fun when your learning about something that is intriguing and  useful in my day to day life.

References

Andrews, M., Boyle, J., & Collins, J. (2016). Transcultural concepts in nursing care (8th ed.). Wolters Kluwer. (pg. 46)

Leininger R, Madeleine, PhD, LHD, DS, RN & CTN, FAAN. (1999). What Is Transcultural Nursing and Culturally Competent Care?. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 10(1), 9. Retrieved from http://ovidsp.ovid.com/ovidweb.cgi?T=JS&PAGE=reference&D=ovftc&NEWS=N&AN=00002045-199901000-00005Links to an external site.

To me, transcultural nursing means to have a heart of understanding and respect when providing care to patients of all cultures. As we provide care, we encounter individuals from just about every walk of life. Whether that is their religious beliefs, nationality, sexual orientation, etc. According to this week’s lesson, “The goal of TCN is to develop a scientific and humanistic body of knowledge in order to provide culture-specific and culture-universal nursing care practices for individuals, families, groups, communities, and institutions of similar and diverse cultures(Andrews, Boyle, & Collins, 2020).” I understand that this is not always a simple task. A recent study states, “the experience of nurses in care delivery to culturally diverse families is demanding and challenging because it imprints a constant tension among barriers, cultural manifestations and the ethical responsibility of care…(Murcia & Lopez, 2016).”

I decided to take this course because I am only a few classes from completing my RN-BSN here at Chamberlain University. There were several options when deciding which course to take, but when I saw transcultural nursing, I thought it would be a great opportunity to improve and sharpen my skills when encountering and caring for patients, and their loved ones, who may be from a different culture than my own. Over the next 8 weeks of classwork, I would love to gain a better understanding of how to properly conduct myself when interacting with people from different cultures. I am confident in my ability to provide proper transcultural nursing, but I never want to reach a place where I feel I can no longer learn from someone else. I hope this course will help me in my clinical practice by taking my skillset to a higher level, and making me even more comfortable when interacting with individuals from different cultures!

Andrews, M. M., Boyle, J. S., & Collins, J. W. (2020). Transcultural concepts in nursing care (8th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.

Murcia, S., & Lopez, L. (2016, July 4). The experience of nurses in care for culturally diverse families: A qualitative meta-synthesis. Retrieved March 03, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4964299