Cultural Diversity Issues In Nursing

CULTURAL DIVERSITY
In the nursing field there are many cultural diversity issues. The issues with culture in nursing is that there will be patients that have different cultural beliefs and practices from one another. For this reason the nurse must keep this in mind and is taught how to behave, react, and respond to different cultures before entering and during his or her nursing career. The nurse must honor and respect all cultural differences as well as maintain equal and professional care for all patients. The key to this is cultural awareness as well as cultural sensitivity. Culture is a way of life that distinguishes a particular group of people from other groups and is the entire learned behaviors of a specific group. I will address a
In nursing the nurse must be aware of when they have a patient who speaks a different language. This is important because one of the jobs of a nurse is to be able to effectively communicate to their patient. For example if you are a nurse who’s primary language is English and you are assigned to a patient who speaks Arabic your patient will not be able to fluently understand what you are trying to communicate to them and this could tremendously affect the care you are trying to provide for them. For instance if you are trying to ask your Arabic patient if they are allergic to any medicine and they cannot fully understand you, this language barrier could possibly injure or even kill your patient if you give them a medicine that they are allergic to. Whereas if you were assigned to a patient who also spoke English, your communication would be effective because he or she would be able to fully understand you and express to you that they indeed are allergic to a specific medicine. One way to avoid injuring or killing a patient by prescribing a medicine that he or she is allergic to who speaks a different language would be to call for an interpreter who speaks Arabic so that your patient will understand what you are saying to