Any cultural differences encountered while nursing?

zenman · May 24, 2006

Depends on the cultures you are working with. There is usually a good bit of info written about how to deal with each cultural group....but then I'm confused because I deal with 40 different groups, LOL!

TazziRN, RN · May 24, 2006

We have some Muslim pts here and when the pt is female we tell the husband/father what we're going to do first, to obtain his agreement/permission.

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · May 24, 2006

We have some Muslim pts here and when the pt is female we tell the husband/father what we're going to do first, to obtain his agreement/permission.

I have to confess, I would have a hard time composing a professional, non-judgemental facial expression while obaining permission from a husband to treat his able-minded and conscious wife. Ugh. Nursing is so challenging.

TazziRN, RN · May 24, 2006

I have to confess, I would have a hard time composing a professional, non-judgemental facial expression while obaining permission from a husband to treat his able-minded and conscious wife. Ugh. Nursing is so challenging.

I agree, I had a problem with this too, until I realized that the ones who really care about their wives/daughters will not refuse permission. It's more keeping them involved in the care and keeping them informed.

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · May 24, 2006

I am sitting here telling myself to display a genuinely compassionate and respectful demeanor because I feel badly for a woman living in this world-view. I don't want her to pick up on any perception of lack of acceptance or lack of respect on my part. That's it. Be as kind as can be for the woman in this situation, despite how it makes my blood boil.

SeekingNur · May 24, 2006

We have some Muslim pts here and when the pt is female we tell the husband/father what we're going to do first, to obtain his agreement/permission.

WHOA! That would be a very bad assumption on your part and that of your colleagues. I am a hijab weaing Muslim woman and I'd be furious if a health care provider did this to me, I know all of my friends would as well. My husband would also find it disturbing. Heck, one of my oldest friends is a neurologist in a California hospital. Can you imagine getting her husband's permission for treatment!?

There are about 2 billion Muslims from almost every country in the world. You can't making a broad generalization abotu all MUslims. Perhaps this is often the case with the cultural group that you deal with, but making such an assumption about any Muslim that enters your hospital is inappropriate.

HARRN2b · May 24, 2006

So how is one to know what the culturally acceptable thing to do is?

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · May 24, 2006

WHOA! That would be a very bad assumption on your part and that of your colleagues. I am a hijab weaing Muslim woman and I'd be furious if a health care provider did this to me, I know all of my friends would as well. My husband would also find it disturbing. Heck, one of my oldest friends is a neurologist in a California hospital. Can you imagine getting her husband's permission for treatment!?
There are about 2 billion Muslims from almost every country in the world. You can't making a broad generalization abotu all MUslims. Perhaps this is often the case with the cultural group that you deal with, but making such an assumption about any Muslim that enters your hospital is inappropriate.

I'm thinking that verbal and non-verbal cues would lead a nurse to wonder if she should ask a husband for permission to treat his wife. For example, years ago when I worked in an ER, it was relatively easy to know what to do with the occasional husband like this based upon his statements and behavior. If the nurse spoke to the wife and she wouldn't look up, and the husband acted defensive and hostile and said "talk to me" then the nurse got her cue about what to do. But of course - you bet, this should never be assumed! Frankly, we had a few Muslim men in the ER who refused to even speak to female RN's.

SeekingNur · May 24, 2006

I'm thinking that verbal and non-verbal cues would lead a nurse to wonder if she should ask a husband for permission to treat his wife. For example, years ago when I worked in an ER, it was relatively easy to know what to do with the occasional husband like this based upon his statements and behavior. If the nurse spoke to the wife and she wouldn't look up, and the husband acted defensive and hostile and said "talk to me" then the nurse got her cue about what to do. But of course - you bet, this should never be assumed! Frankly, we had a few Muslim men in the ER who refused to even speak to female RN's.

Would you only do this with Muslims or would you also do it if your patient looked like they belonged to some other religious group? This is a sign of abusive behavior, regardless of the culture. There is no law in Islam that states that a woman must seek any man's permission for medical treatment, quite the opposite. Protecting your health and life is one of the primary reasons almost any Islamic law can be broken. Need pork to save your life? Fine, eat it, and so on and so forth.

Antikigirl, ASN, RN · May 24, 2006

When I was fairly new at my first job on a med surge floor in a huge hospital...I had a muslim male pt post vein harvest for bipass. The wounds were a complex dressing and unfortunatly...I was a female and the patient and patients wife could NOT let me do it for religious reasons...they just said that they were sorry but they couldn't...I respected that although odd to me (hey, I don't know everything..so things are frequently odd anyway..LOL).

So instead of getting ticked, I saw he had a brother in the room and asked him if I taught him how to do a sterile dressing if he would do it. Everyone agreed! I took him into a room and taught him for a day how to do it (my day off!)...the whole shabang! He was great!!!!!!!

SO, what I did was stand outside the door with my back turned to the patient as the brother did the dressing change. He was so good! I actually think that with the continuity and my lesson that that dressing change and wound did better than anyone elses! I loved it! And they appreciated my flexibility (and the nurses appreciated that they didn't have to do it...LOL!). Total win win!

The sad thing was the MD would not lift a finger to help his patient. He was obviously done with all the roadblocks their form of the religion prohibited them to do. Guess that is why we have nurses huh?

I have dealt with many different cultures and religions in my 6 years. Japanese, Chinese, Hispanic, German, English, French, African, Russian, Indian, American Indian, Pakistani, Iraqi, Egyptian...and from Buddist to Jahova's Witness. I love finding ways of respecting and doing things accordingly to be a happy challenge that I am very suited to take...I love taking the road less traveled anyway! LOL!

Oh yeah...I also forgot that they had a dickens of a time doing prayer to the East (I remember it to be east anyway)...so I was able to reserve a private family room at the east end of a floor not being used so they may do as they wished for prayer! I even got a CD player so they could hear the CD prayer songs/chants (?) as they prayed! That made them happy and made me feel soooooo great!!!!!!!

ragingmomster, BSN, MSN, RN · May 24, 2006

ASK! and do it politely.

I have found that most patients will explain their cultural differences if they are asked in a polite manner.

One of the questions on our admission assessment is "Are there any spiritual or cultural practices that you would like to follow while you are here?"

The most recent muslim pt I cared for here in LD would only allow females in the room and preferred that questions be addressed to her husband but the answers would come from the pt. It seemed that there was a great deal of non-verbal communication between the two of them.

I try hard not to make any assumptions at all.