Culturally sensitive nursing--questions

[dianacs]

I am doing a research paper on Madeleine Leininger, the founder of transcultural nursing, so I've been reading a lot of articles on the subject. We've also spent some class time discussing the importance of being sensitive to a patient's cultural background. I'd like to know how this works in the real world:

If you work in a facility that serves a certain ethnic group or perhaps variety of ethnic groups, how helpful is it to understand their cultures? How does knowing their culture affect your practice? Does it make a difference in your approach? Do you research them on your own or does your facility provide education? Do you have interpreters available? What do you do when you don't?

Leininger and others stress the importance of knowing other cultures and accomodating them as much as possible--obviously, most people who go to the hospital are sick and vulnerable and need all the TLC they can get. But there are going to be times when an understanding of a patient's culture isn't possible and you do the best you can. Do these patients try to meet you partway?

Thanks in advance.

[semstr]

Hi, there, yes Madeleine Leininger was the first nursing theorist, who put culture diversity and caring on paper and did a lot of fieldstudies.

Nowadays, there are quite a few others, who have similar, but a bit more realistic theories about diversity in culture.

being from Europe, automatically means, caring for people from all over the world and their differencies.

For patients this means, beginning with admission, not only questions about religion and do you want a priest/ Mulah, when necessary, but also about diets (religion related or not) and culturel or religious habits to be considered.

Of course we have interpreters here and a lot of staff from all over the world.

Want to know more about Madeleine Leininger: http://www.tcns.org or try http://www.transculturalnursing.org

have fun and take care, Renee

[Q.]

I think, as OB/GYN NP stated, that having a general knowledge about a culture's behaviors are good to know while providing care - as with the women in labor. At my hospital, we have a large population of Hispanics who have tons of family. It is important to them to have these family members present. I try to accomodate this as much as possible.

I also believe that there are entirely too many sub-cultures of cultures to put any one in a box. You start to do that and you inadvertently "offend" someone. It's best to ask, and we do upon admission. I try to reasonably accomodate things as best as I can without jeapardizing patient care.

I once had a patient of Asian or West Indian descent, who, after delivery, would not allow me to escort her to the bathroom to teach peri-care and assess her bleeding. In their culture, that was the mother-in-law's job. They actually tried to shove me out the room as the patient got up for the first time after a blood loss of 700cc. It was at that time that I drew the line. If that patient collapses or is not adequately cleaned up, and gets an infection, whose fault is that? MINE. I stood my ground, would NOT leave the room and inspected her peri-area myself after the MIL did her "thing." If it wasn't cleaned appropriately, I did it again myself. They seemed irritated with this, but they have to work with me here.

I think it's all about meeting each other halfway. I can integrate your beliefs into my care, but you also need to integrate my care into your beliefs. While you may have your own culture, you ARE in a Western medical facility and should expect a reasonable amount of Western beliefs to play a part.

[dianacs]

I think it's all about meeting each other halfway. I can integrate your beliefs into my care, but you also need to integrate my care into your beliefs. While you may have your own culture, you ARE in a Western medical facility and should expect a reasonable amount of Western beliefs to play a part.

This makes sense to me.