Have you ever cared for a patient that had different cultural views than you, and as a result had trouble caring for that patient?
I live and had always lived in parts of the country that was predominantly caucasian. Here in Wisconsin, we have a group of Asian-Americans that are called Hmong. There are refugees from Laos that settled here and in other parts in the U.S. Suffice to say that when I graduated nursing school, I had very little interaction or understanding of this group. My first week off orientation, I had a Hmong adult female that spoke no english. She was being treated for pneumonia and when I hung the antibiotic, she became very dyspneic. She looked as though she was having an allergic reaction to the medication, though it was hard to know for sure because of the language barrier. All I know is that in 10 minutes she had 15 members of her family there at her side. Meanwhile, I gave her steroids and RT gave her an updraft. Come to find out later, that she thought that I was the "devil" because of the steroids and updraft and the lack of understanding that was going on.
Needless to say, that she got better and I enrolled in the first cultural diversity in nursing class that I could find. There really are some huge issues in health care among different groups.
So I am curious what you have run across as nurses that was unique to a certain culture in your area.
