Giger And Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model

Transcultural Analysis of Jewish Culture at End of Life Nurses are renowned for holistic care, including care for the spirit and mind, not just for the body. Demonstrating appropriate cultural respect, sometimes referred to as cultural competence, is as much a necessity for wellness of the mind and spirit as hand washing is for preventing the spread of disease in the body. A powerful way for nurses to become culturally sensitive is to utilize a method to assess components that are common to every culture and to actively use those findings in caring for patients. The Giger and Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model will be applied broadly to the Jewish culture, specifically at the end of life, and nursing implications will be explored.
The nurse will assess the language spoken by the individual, as well as their use of tone, pitch, silence, and nonverbal cues (Giger & Davidhizar, 2004). Galanti states that miscommunication stems from many factors such as the use of idioms, words that have different meanings regionally, or when different languages have words that sound the same but mean something else (2008).
Utilize an interpreter whenever possible; use family members only in emergency situations. An interpreter should be trained to explain medical terms to a lay person, and should have no personal stake in the situation. Asking a child to translate for their parent is troubling from the perspective of both parties. The parent may not feel comfortable disclosing pertinent history or symptoms in front of their child, or the child may not have the vocabulary necessary to ask pertinent questions or to relay
Giger and Davidhizar label this as social time versus clock oriented (Giger & Davidhizar, 2004). Time also relates to orientation. People concerned with planning are future oriented, while those who believe time is more linear and the present moment cannot be recreated tend to be present oriented (Giger & Davidhizar, 2004). Evaluating the perception of time is relevant to nursing since many tasks are clock driven, like medication administration and the timeliness doctor’s appointments.
Environmental Control How a culture defines health and illness and how they perceive their ability influence nature are elements of environmental control. Cultural beliefs may indicate illness is a consequence of immoral behavior, a test or punishment from a divine being, or just bad luck. How much control the person believes they have on the environment may dictate how much they value disease prevention (Giger and Davidhizar, 2002).
Biological Variations Variations between cultural populations may be due to genetic differences, environmental differences, or a combination of the two. Genetic differences manifest as body structure, skin color and enzymatic deficiencies. Environmental differences may have to do with social support or nutritional preferences (Giger and Davidhizar,