Cultural Assessment
June 14, 2008
Abstract In order to deliver nursing care to different cultures, nurses are expected to understand and provide culturally competent health care to diverse individuals. Culturally competent care is tailored to the specific needs of each client, while incorporating the individual’s beliefs and values (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2006, p. 90). By being culturally competent, nurses are able to help improve health outcomes by using cultural knowledge and specific skills in selecting interventions that are specific to each client (Stanhope & Lancaster). Therefore, nurses “should perform a cultural assessment on every client with whom they interact with” (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2006, p. 90) to help understand client’s perspectives of health and illness and discuss culturally appropriate interventions. In this paper, the author will demonstrate how nurses can utilize a cultural heritage assessment tool to help develop a cultural competent nursing care plan, which can be referred to in Appendix A and B. By culturally assessing client, nurses will be able to identify the needs of culturally diverse individuals and find out if what's important to the culture is really important to the person in terms of specific health needs.
Introduction
In order to deliver nursing care to different cultures, nurses are expected to understand and provide culturally competent health care to diverse individuals. Nurses must find out about people’s traditions, ways of life, and beliefs about health care so that the appropriate interventions can be planned and implemented to produce culturally positive health outcomes (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2006). By being aware of the client’s cultural beliefs and knowing about other cultures, “nurses may be less judgmental, more accepting of cultural differences, and less likely to engage in the behaviors that inhibit cultural competence” (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2006, p. 84).
References: Doenges, M., Moorhouse, M., & Murr, A. (2006). Nurse’s pocket guide: Diagnoses, prioritized interventions, and rationales (10th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis. Stanhope, M. & Lancaster, J. (2006). Foundations of nursing in the community (2nd ed). St Louis, MO: Mosby, Inc.