The purpose of this paper is to highlight the key issues discussed and described in a given nursing journal article about the manner in which professional communication relates to the issue of cultural sensitivity. In this regard, the paper focuses on the Hispanic cultural group in the United States. In analyzing the aspect of professional communication and cultural sensitivity with a specific focus on the Hispanic group, the discussion considers a situation in practices that demonstrate the role of cultural sensitivity when it comes to facilitating communication. The reason for selecting the Hispanic cultural group in the United States is that Hispanic Americans come from diverse geographic, economic and social backgrounds thus making them different and unique depending on their national origin and family heritage. Moreover, the issue of professional communication about cultural sensitivity is appropriately applicable to the Hispanic cultural group since it represents families and individuals who are Spanish speakers. The Hispanic group has always placed more emphasis on teaching the family members and children to communicate in Spanish as a means of passing down the culture and heritage to the up-coming generations (Harris, 2014).
Summary of Article
The article titled Evaluating the Linguistic Appropriateness and Cultural Sensitivity of a Self-Report System for Spanish-Speaking Patients with Cancer , selected from Nursing Research and Practice highlights the plight of the Hispanic cultural group and other Spanish speaking people in the United States regarding their cultural challenges to communication during the treatment of cancer. As such, the article presents a description of the ways through which various interventions that are focused on the cultural sensitivity of communication can be adopted and implemented to assist the Hispanic cultural group and other Spanish speakers to have efficient and effective communication with the healthcare givers. Effective communication between the healthcare workers and members of this cultural group will be critical in securing efforts towards the realization of quality healthcare provision and symptom management as well as improvement of issues related to the quality of life (Tofthagen et al ., 2018).
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In its description, the article provides an overview of process and outcomes involved in the evaluation of the cultural sensitivity and linguistic appropriateness of a system used in enhancing communication between healthcare workers and Spanish-speaking patients. This article describes a position that the effectiveness of the communication that exists between patients and healthcare worker while attending to the healthcare needs of a given community can be enhanced upon understanding and appreciating the sensitivity that surrounds the associated cultural beliefs. In this case, it would be important to work towards ensuring that there is a link that exists between the approach of communicating and providing healthcare services on one side and the cultural beliefs and practices of the Hispanic community on the other side. According to this article, the existing communication gap could be eliminated through the involvement of healthcare providers in understanding and incorporating the cultural values of this cultural group in their model of medical service delivery (Tofthagen et al ., 2018).
Application to Practice
The views held by Ahmed and Bates (2017) indicate that the consideration of the aspect of cultural sensitivity plays a critical role when it comes to ensuring that an effective way of communication takes place patients and healthcare practitioners such as nurses in a given society. In certain cultures, there are certain topics on health issues such as health problems and dysfunctions that are regarded as taboo. Also, women patients from certain cultures may shy away from effectively communicating their health problems and issues when dealing with a male health practitioner. This kind of cultural beliefs may be viewed as stumbling blocks to effective communication between health caregivers and patients from a certain cultural background and eventually acting as an impediment to the accessibility of appropriate healthcare services. According to Harris (2014), a culturally insensitive communication between a healthcare service provider and a patient could considerably have adverse effects on the quality of the care given to the patients.
In some cases, failure to exercise cultural sensitivity by a healthcare practitioner when attending to a patient could lead to a wrong diagnosis thereby subjecting a patient to the danger of receiving wrong medication. The involvement of nurses in coming up with appropriate plans, assessment, evaluations, and interventions can only have the expected effect upon the consideration of the influence of cultural beliefs and value system espoused by a given cultural group. Different cultures are guided by different ways of expressing politeness while communicating with medical personnel or patient. In a practical situation where a practicing nurse or any other healthcare practitioner fails to observe the cultural way of politeness while acquiring information from a patient, may be considered as being rude to the patient. Additionally, there are certain strong spiritual or religious components of beliefs that may make it extremely difficult for a patient to receive the right kind of treatment for various illnesses (Tofthagen et al ., 2018).
Moreover, there is a need to carry out adequate cultural awareness in communities and cultural backgrounds where healthcare givers are expected to communicate with the community members effective with the intention of addressing their healthcare issues. In any given cultural environment communication between patients and members of the cultural group in question can be adequately enhanced if there is the bridging of the divide that often exists between healthcare service delivery and cultural beliefs. The cultural value system of patients from a given cultural background is usually dependent on their economic status, sexual orientation, religion, family origin nationality and ethnic heritage among others. Every encounter with a healthcare service provider ensures the availability of an opportunity for the members of a particular cultural group to highlight their cultural concerns about the system of communication used. Healthcare gives able to maximize the potential to provide effective and quality services by putting themselves in a better position to learn and embrace some of the most sensitive communication aspects of the patients' culture (Ahmed & Bates, 2017).
Conclusion
In summing up, it is worth acknowledging that cultural sensitivity plays a critical role in influencing the effectiveness of the communication that takes place between a patient and a healthcare giver providing medical services that focus on a particular cultural group such as the Hispanic in the United States. Upon reading and evaluating the article from Nursing Research and Practice and is on Evaluating the Linguistic Appropriateness and Cultural Sensitivity of a Self-Report System for Spanish-Speaking Patients with Cancer, several conclusions have been drawn. One of these conclusions is that there is need to ensure that the healthcare givers providing services in an environment characterized by a particular cultural background can embrace the issue of cultural sensitivity while communicating with their patients. This will go a long way in ensuring that they are in a better position to offer effective and quality healthcare services such as the provision of effective cancer treatment to the Hispanic patients who are majorly Spanish speakers. To that extent, a medical practitioner in the nursing profession ought to ensure the incorporation of the aspect of professional communication and the consideration of cultural sensitivity while undertaking their training and practice.
References
Ahmed, R. and Bates, B. (2017). Patients’ fear of physicians and perceptions of physicians’
Cultural competence in healthcare. Journal of Communication in Healthcare , 10(1), 55-60.
Harris, M. (2014). Cultural Sensitivity 2014. Journal of Home Healthcare Nurse , 32(4), 23-26.
Tofthagen, C., Halpenny, B., Melendez, M., Gonzalez, L., Sanchez Varela, V., Negrón,
R.and Berry, D. (2018). Evaluating the Linguistic Appropriateness and Cultural
Sensitivity of a Self-Report System for Spanish-Speaking Patients with Cancer . Nursing Research and Practice, 2014( 702683 ), 1-13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/702683
