Cultural Differences In Nursing

Cultural differences are also an important aspect of the critical incident as mother was from a Pakistan and had recently moved to England. Emma was from Pakistan has had only been in the country for a year and was finding it difficult to adjust and integrate into her community and was therefore was being supported by health visitor which stopped when she was re admitted with baby to hospital. However, due to lack of communication listening visit did not continue immediately after discharge. Studies have shown there are feelings of hopeless, sadness, isolation and loneliness among migrant women and wishing for family members during the perinatal period.
According to research migrant women experience feelings of great sadness, vulnerability,
Women form ethnic minorities’ value health professionals who are knowledgeable about their culture and trustworthy. (Lundberg and Gerezgiher, 2008; Reynolds and White, 2010). Nonetheless, Emma was given the opportunity to explain her reasons for not wanting to take part in the assessment promoting individuality of care. As evidenced by b Dorhout et al (2013), the differences in cultural groups can be differentiated by geographical locations or individual traits. Personal knowing stage of John model (2006) allows one to incorporate the lived experiences, attitudes, values and self-awareness of the reflector (Thomason, 2010). It was evident personal beliefs and values have affected my judgement towards Emma without putting the client first. Bidmead (2002) reported that people from ethnic background do not trust in services which support them and therefore are have limited engagement with services therefore making them more isolated and alienated from the
On reflection, there was an element of being judgemental towards Emma, which was wrong as Emma’s personal beliefs and culture should have been the priority. There is a need for one to be self-aware of their practice and how it affects others. NMC (2010), states that for personal and professional development nurses need to be self-aware and recognise how their personal values and principles affect their practice and learn through reflection and feedback. According to (Jack and Smith 2007), self -awareness guides practitioners to practice more effectively as they are able to know their strength, limitation and can improve certain outcome.
Burnard (1992) suggests that developing self-awareness helps us to be less of a victim and enables us to take control and responsibility for situations. It is important that we present ourselves in a ‘genuine’ way as mental health nurses or, as Burnard (2002) suggests, that we present ‘a clear, honest and authentic presentation of