Cultural Sensitivity: How to Be Respectful of Other Cultures

Personal and professional values are both important in influencing the ability of a Nursing Practitioner to conduct a culturally sensitive assessment. It is mainly attributed to the cultural implications of space in several ways. This essay will discuss three ways in which personal and professional values of nurses can influence their ability to conduct a culturally sensitive assessment in relation to cultural implications of space. 

Communication Patterns 

For this case, both personal and professional values of the nurses should involve effective communication skills which could either be acquired through learning or by practice. Communication patterns are an essential aspect when it comes to dealing with cultural sensitivity assessment in healthcare and nursing. In relation to cultural implications of space, both verbal and non-verbal patterns in communication such as eye contact, touch, and facial expressions are important in facilitating communication between the nurse and the client especially to the patients who are culturally diverse. In most cases, nurses should combine both patterns while employing personal and professional values for an effective communication to their clients while performing the assessment. 

Bias data and information in the cultural assessment process 

In the second place, while performing the cultural assessment process, the use of bias data by clinicians especially nurses should be avoided. According to Haring et al. (2012), this is because the prevalence of cultural discrimination is dominant in almost every aspect of the society including hospitals. Nurses should employ their professional values such as equality among all patients and personal values such as integrity to give accurate assessments. Haring et al (2012) report that even though violence is not significantly correlated with race, clinicians often assessed and prescribed American-Indians and Black inmates with psychiatric medication compared to their White counterparts. To avoid such bias and inconclusive assessments, nurses should involve both distant and immediate receptors while assessing their clients in to effectively evaluate them. 

Proper guidelines for multicultural assessments 

The nurses should also use effective guidelines while performing multicultural assessments. This involves the nurses’ cultural experiences, effective interpretation of various cultural differences of the clients which involves close evaluation of the clients. It also involves physical and psychological testing often with the use of relevant receptors, and lastly the assessment decision (Haring et al., 2012). All these require the nurse to use relevant personal and professional values which include honesty, integrity, and effective communication skills. 

Conclusion 

Generally speaking, cultural sensitivity assessments are important in any clinical practice and in most cases, it should be conducted efficiently. Clinicians should employ their relevant personal and professional skills such as in effective communication skills, integrity, and honesty while performing the assessment. 

References 

Haring, R. C., Titus, J. C., Stevens, L. H., & Estrada, B. D. (2012). Increasing the knowledge base: Utilizing the GAIN in culturally sensitive landscapes.  Fourth World Journal , (2), 79. Retrieved from http://165.193.178.96/login?url=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26db%3dedsind%26AN%3dedsind.022045361013326%26site%3deds-live