Cultural and Ethinic Considerations in Nursing

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Mar 14, 2009

You have a good idea! That info could be part of every health systems intranet for ease of employee access.

Look at http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Faith-Tools/index.aspx for inspiration.

FireStarterRN, BSN, RN · Mar 14, 2009

Frankly, I think catering to every wacky, superstitious belief is opening up Pandora's box. If someone has an unusual need or belief, whether it's culturally based or not, they need to communicate it clearly to the staff and not expect the hospital to know every little cultural nuance under the sun. To expect every nurse to guard some dirt under the bed is going above and beyond the call of duty. And please don't give us another form to fill out to satisfy the smug sociologists who cook this stuff up from within the hallowed halls of academia.

zuzi · Mar 15, 2009

Tx, My opinion like a "smug sociologist" and nurse and closed to patient satisfaction, loooool, much more than MY own cushion job well paid, is YES, is a nice study, good to be applied if a open mind manager will see it. And I will tell why...

IF I will be your patient and if my cultural background and my etnicity will be respected by your facility and your employe know how to talk with me, knowing my background I will come back each time. If not, I truly belived that I will found somewhere else...

And I will give you an exemple, people who belong to one culture...... deaf culture like, LGBT culture, like gipsy culture, like punk subculture and many others has their own values (hided or not). Much more many of them could respond or not of the questions related of them culture. Many of them even not identify them self like part of that culture, are hided. But others are out of the box and is easy, to keep them contents.

If you will ever try to talk about heaven and confession with a gay what do you think that he/she will do next time when she will need medical care....loool.

Or if you will put a gipsy in isolation for MRSA, and not alowed any one in contact with him many days... what do you think that will be happen, next time.

Or if a old hippy one that usually smoke pot from his young times and you will try to keep him on ativan and pain meds just to make him helaty...lool

Or related etnicity...is the same...just nice, nice nice..very related to patient satisfaction

Is a soo nice study..... "five a clock tea" is another etnicity related one... sir, madame.. a lot, looooool. My opinion try it! If you will know how to expose your ideea, related to patient satisfaction, sure you will find a open mind for implementation!

Good luck!

RedCell · Mar 15, 2009

You could sum this "class" up in about 10 seconds. Treat others how you would want to be treated. There you go, A for the day. Seriously, this kind of ****** is why new grads have to go through hospital orientation programs to learn how to be a nurse. If Nursing Educators really want to be teaching this cultural diversity crap then they should at least cover useful topics...such as pharmacokinetic/dynamic differences that are apparent among different races, why some classes of meds work on one group and not well on another. At least you could apply that to nursing. Actually, that would be a helpful database for you to put together. You could probably even get it written up in the ANA journal.

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · Mar 15, 2009

You could sum this "class" up in about 10 seconds. Treat others how you would want to be treated. There you go, A for the day.

How you want to be treated is based upon your culture. Those from other cultures may want to be treated differently.

vashtee, RN · Mar 15, 2009

I don't know that it would work because even if a person identifies with a particular religious group, that doesn't mean their practices are the same. For example, if a person is Jewish, they don't necessarily keep Kosher. Those that keep kosher do so to different degrees. I know a rabbi who keeps Kosher, but will eat chicken with dairy because chicken is a bird, not meat. Other rabbis would freak out if you tried serving them chicken and milk. Other Jews consider themselves Kosher because they are vegetarians or vegans. Some Jews simply don't eat forbidden meats (pork or shellfish), and they consider that kosher-style.

I think an individual plan of care will be the most appropriate.

RedCell · Mar 15, 2009

How you want to be treated is based upon your culture. Those from other cultures may want to be treated differently.

It is not the responsibility of the American healthcare system to accommodate for the customs of each culture residing in the United States (unless a particular institution is trying to turn a profit adhering to a particular custom). If you are in America, then you should abide by our traditions. Want a vegan dinner tray, fine, eat the apple that is neatly place next to the tea. These cultural classes are taking away from more important topics that are ignored in present day nursing programs. As a result, new grads are reporting to their first day of work clueless to the environment of real world nursing and therefore require some sort of orientation program. Even med/surg units are now requiring orientation classes. This is ridiculous and is a superfluous waste of money. When I got hurt on a surf trip to Nicaragua, I went to a Nicaraguan hospital for treatment. I abided by their "customs". Everything turned out fine.

zuzi · Mar 15, 2009

Good point Vashtee! In the same time is how different people are more approachble from ethnic and cultural point of view

And i will tell you a story. My first month working in hospital... a East European man patient of mine. He recognized my accent and asked me from where I am. Talk. After that he adress me in his native language, "now YOU need to explain me what means all of that NO ONE WANT TO TALK WITH ME!"

Well, what he stated wasn't true! All nurses and doctors tried to talk with him. BUT they talked and communicate with him in english communication style that is TOTALLY in another way than in Eastern Europe style. You could talk a perfect english, if you don't communicate like people from EE communication is nothing.... is just coldness, distance, arogance! And belive me, now after so many years in America sometime I fell the same.

"I have trust in you, you came from there, like me, explain me, what they say !" Very hard situation for me, very distresfull for him! I asked him what "english doctor" told him! He told me. After that half in his maternal language (I forgot a loooot, lol), half in english, I explaind him, that is perfect true what the doctor told him, BUT on EE approach, much more warm, much more subjective, much more hugging. Is EE style! Talking about past, about places about people, about culture, he make jokes about how many americans lovers I have, looool... he was going happy! Very sick and very happy!

Now frim english point of view...How many ENGLISH nurses could communicate in that way! Is not admited! Is ultrageous, is harassment! But for him wasn't ...was just his native style!

This man was very sick, but he was going home happy! If he will ask a english nurse all the time the same question and ask and try to find and clarify... english style will clasify him like anxious, depress, argumentative, and take actions against his behavior. But he was just a great man positioned in his former country, away from his native land in the last 50 years, working here, and now an old man in USA, very sick patient for me, and why not... my inner personal part was involved.

I was non professional because I didn't used professional english style of communication, may be.... but THIS patient, american citizen now, who paid thousand of dollars for his hospitalizasion, was going home happy and full of hope, and for sure he will tell to all his community... "going there, going on that hopsital... is Zuzi there, she will explain you all like in our former country, are good doctors in that hospital, but are just in another way, need to understand them, she will explain you all if you don't understand somenthing"

This is the "customer service" nurse role! Patient happy, he will come back, because OF YOU or going out also because OF YOU!

Another arabian one, talked on very high level with me, I put my eyes down and all the time I asked him, "Would you like? What is your wish Sir? " is a style THE MAN, cultural style. Do you think that for me the ultrafeminist Zuzi was easy??? At all! But he needed to stay happy! He give us money, from his money came my check, he need to stay happy!

We need ALL to know about these paterns and respect them . May be some cutural profiles and standard sentences could be usefull and some curtosy behavior applied and avoided in patinet care will be appreciated.

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · Mar 15, 2009

It is not the responsibility of the American healthcare system to accommodate for the customs of each culture residing in the United States (unless a particular institution is trying to turn a profit adhering to a particular custom). If you are in America, then you should abide by our traditions. Want a vegan dinner tray, fine, eat the apple that is neatly place next to the tea. These cultural classes are taking away from more important topics that are ignored in present day nursing programs. As a result, new grads are reporting to their first day of work clueless to the environment of real world nursing and therefore require some sort of orientation program. Even med/surg units are now requiring orientation classes. This is ridiculous and is a superfluous waste of money. When I got hurt on a surf trip to Nicaragua, I went to a Nicaraguan hospital for treatment. I abided by their "customs". Everything turned out fine.

I don't entirely disagree with you. However, I do think we should have some knowledge and sensitivity for those of non-majority cultures.

Also, when you said those in the United States should abide by our traditions, I have to ask, whose traditions are those? The European white majority? We have many traditions. The European white majority is going to become the minority as demographics change in the United States.

twistedpupchaser · Mar 15, 2009

I think that rather than another piece of paperwork for the nurse at the bedside, a different approach would be to ask community leaders of the various cultural groups to provide a broad outline of their cultural practices. This when put into a database would provide the information to provide a broadly ethnocentric careplan for an individual Pt. Trying to please everyone would be a huge waste of time and resources, not every Jewish person follows the same rules, as stated earlier.

An example, as an Australian would you guys think that apart from my lack of an accent I would be different from a Caucasion American? Would a Native American from Texas have different customs to a Native American from Oklahoma, (are there Native Americans in Oklahoma?) In Australia we have the Aboriginal people, people from as close as 100 miles often speak different languages and have surprising different aspects to their culture, even though the basics are very similar.

I think to provide a culturally apropriate care for our Pt's we need to look inside ourselves at our own culture and try to understand that. I will leave you with a little story that I heard years ago.........A tourist was in South East Asia on holiday and watched a monk place a bowl of food at his ancesters shrine, "How can your ancesters eat the food you put there, thats stupid." The monk turned to the tourist and asked, "When you place flowers at a loved ones grave, do they come up and smell them?"

feralnostalgia · Mar 15, 2009

And please don't give us another form to fill out to satisfy the smug sociologists who cook this stuff up from within the hallowed halls of academia.

it was my sociology classes that convinced me to become an RN.

It is not the responsibility of the American healthcare system to accommodate for the customs of each culture residing in the United States (unless a particular institution is trying to turn a profit adhering to a particular custom). If you are in America, then you should abide by our traditions. Want a vegan dinner tray, fine, eat the apple that is neatly place next to the tea.

As a vegan, I sure hope I never have a nurse with your attitude towards us. my family has been in america for longer than "america" has existed as a country. why, exactly, should I be forced to abide by what you consider normal and "american"? and what kind of health professional will actively discourage someone making a healthy diet choice? according to the american dietetics association meat eaters are 88% more likely to suffer from colorectal cancer, 54% more likely to suffer from prostate cancer, twice as likely to develop dimentia, diverticulitis, and type II diabetes. vegetarians are also 37% less likely to develop ischemic heart disease.

why, exactly, is a health professional going to criticise and discourge someone from making a lifestyle choice that very clearly has significant health benefits? the public-health relevence of the meat-eating "tradition" you're insisting all americans should put up with is huge. if you lowered the death rates from diabetes, heart disease, colorectal and prostate cancers by the percentages which vegetarians have consistently been observed to differ by, hundreds of thousands of lives a year would be saved.

I guess you'd rather they be "traditionally" obese, spend more time in hospitals, and die more often. wouldn't want to offend traditionalists. never mind that this vegan's ancestors came over with William Penn, I'm not a real american because I don't eat hamburgers!