Today, healthcare practitioners are increasingly dealing with patients from diverse cultural backgrounds, notably Native Americans. This carries challenges and opportunities for nurses to deliver culturally competent care. Whether in the school, nursing home or hospital environment, nurses must understand the patients’ differences in beliefs, practices, demographics, norms, and desires for healthcare services and integrate their perspectives into their care plans (Wilson, 2010). Culturally competence strategies are important aspects of excellent healthcare delivery as they contribute to the achievement of improved outcomes in patients. Here are some best practice strategies to encourage the delivery of culturally competent care to Native Americans.
The first strategy involves ensuring that the organization has complete and accurate information about the ethnicity, race, and language preferences of Native American members (Kersey-Matusiak, 2013). This information will allow the leaders to identify key gaps between the cultural and linguistic construction of this population and uncover specific domains where cultural competence care is lacking. The law requires that healthcare organizations collect details about ethnicity, race, and language needs of the Native American population and individuals served (Wittig, 2004). Various states have enacted restrictions regarding how health organizations and health plans should collect this data. Nevertheless, it seems many organizations are ignoring these restrictions. At a minimum, organizations’ healthcare plans must collect data on ethnicity, race, and the preferred language via standard forms completed by enrollees. Organizations must provide these forms in multiple languages and explain the importance of collecting information (Kersey-Matusiak, 2013). This will help detect and address the linguistic and cultural barriers facing Native American patients.
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Thorough patient evaluation is the second strategy, and it seeks to prevent misdiagnosis and stereotypes attached to Native Americans (Wilson, 2010). Practitioners must learn to permit patients from this population to tell their story and motivate them to share their cultural identity. Some of the stereotypes that practitioners must avoid include assuming that Native Americans do not exercise their religion. Other stereotypes likely to be attached to the Native Americans are that they all practice the same religion and that they have to wear traditional clothing. Different Native American groups practice spirituality; but, each group has distinct practices and ceremonies. Therefore, healthcare practitioners must understand that some groups will be more willing to share their religious practices with non-Natives, while other groups will not (Kersey-Matusiak, 2013).
Health care practitioners must find ways to connect with Native American patients (Wittig, 2004). This strategy is important because it helps build trust with this patient population; this is a key essential in nursing. However, language barriers can challenge the implementation of this strategy. Therefore, healthcare practitioner seeks services of translators (Kersey-Matusiak, 2013). Even so, when working with translators, practitioners are tempted to speak directly with and look at the interpreter. In this view, care delivery stations within organizations must be set up in a manner that encourages the practitioner to look directly at the patient, and the interpreter must be off to the other side. Practitioners must be coached on how to look at the patient as they speak and not the translator (Kersey-Matusiak, 2013). Besides looking at and listening to the patients while they are speaking, practitioners must employ gestures such as nodding, a pat on the back or a touch on the knee if the culture allows (Kersey-Matusiak, 2013). This is one way of letting the patient know that the practitioner is directly connected to them and that the interpreter is only present to repeat the patient’s words in a different language. Regardless of culture, there are still numerous ways of connecting to Native American patients. They include asking questions, listening actively, and following through the patient’s story.
Another important strategy is to create a receptive environment, which is welcoming and inviting to Native American patients (Wittig, 2004). Practitioners must support patients and give a receptive environment to help facilitate the completion of forms. If it is culturally appropriate for this population, practitioners can decorate their clinical stations with artwork associated with this culture. Implementing these strategies could help deliver culturally competent care to Native Americans and improve their health outcomes.
References
Kersey-Matusiak, G. (2013). Delivering culturally competent nursing care . New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.
Wittig, D. R. (January 01, 2004). Knowledge, skills and attitudes of nursing students regarding culturally congruent care of Native Americans. Journal of Transcultural Nursing : Official Journal of the Transcultural Nursing Society, 15, 1, 54-61.
Wilson, D. W. (January 01, 2010). Culturally competent psychiatric nursing care. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 17, 8, 715-24.
