Culture plays a crucial role in determining healthcare preferences and practices in today’s multicultural society. Healthcare practitioners, such as nurses are faced with challenges of working with patients from diverse cultural backgrounds. Developing high-quality care in a multicultural society to meet the patient’s needs pose a challenge in tody’ diverse health system. Hence it is essential to provide care in an approach that accommodates and respects people from diverse cultures without discrimination. Cultural awareness and their effect on illness and health are vital for healthcare practitioners in any care setting.
How Cultures Impact Ilness and Health
Nurses practicing in a multicultural society should be aware there exists other cultures other than theirs and should stop assuming that people will accept or conform to different cultures. What could be accepted in one culture could be considered a taboo in another (Napier et al., 2014) . Judging people from based on culture could lead to misjudgments, which may translate to failure of care. Understanding the culture of patients and their individual beliefs is important, like knowing their health problems and comprehensive nursing care. It is essential that nurses take into consideration the key cultural factors that may have an impact on patients and understand that diversity in healthcare entails attending to each patient irrespective of cultural differences.
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Nurses need to have in-depth knowledge of cultural diversity to develop a culturally sensitive healthcare facility. Having knowledge of cultural diversity will enable nurses to be more effective in serving patients and also acting as their advocates. Nurses are in a position of influencing policies when they have knowledge about other cultures. Transcultural care is put into practice through culturally sensitive nursing practice. Cultural awareness and competence are vital on illness and health process, respecting of patients, and is essential regardless of whom it involves (Thompson, Parrott & Nussbaum, 2011) . A nurse should earn the trust of a patient, and if there are barriers such as language, a nurse should ask for immediate assistance such as translation. Also, a healthcare facility should consider hiring people from diverse fields such as a professional interpreter who will ensure the needs of the patients are met.
Cultural competence entails providing the best care to patients from diverse cultures, and impact on illness and health management. Cultural competence requires being effective and sensitive to verbal and non-verbal communication (Thompson, Parrott & Nussbaum, 2011) . It largely depends on application skills, knowledge, and self-awareness. Being cultural insensitive can results in discrimination, stereotyping, and prejudice (Williams & Mohammed, 2013) . It is thus paramount that nurses understand how to address patients since some may have different beliefs about medical care being offered.
Culturally competent nurses should advocate for the overall good health of patients. It is upon nurses to challenge various unsafe cultural practices, including female circumcision, as these are cultural practices that can lead to serious health problems. Nurses need to understand certain cultural aspects of their patients for them to be sensitive to the patient’s needs from diverse cultures. Being culturally competent will also enable nurses to understand how to integrate culture in healthcare.
Activities that can be integrated into the health process based on beliefs or cultures
There are various activities that a nurse can consider when providing care considering the different cultural beliefs around health and illness. These activities are paramount, especially during difficult moments such as the grieving process or when handling a terminal illness. Specific activities that can be carried out are dependent on the patients’ cultural beliefs and spirituality, including being peaceful and praying.
During the dying process, it is crucial for a nurse to be peaceful as it offers support to the patient since it entails transitioning to a new chapter. Various strategies are involved that a nurse can apply to facilitate peace on a patient and their family members. These strategies include meditation and music therapy as they are effective for providing peace to a patient before passing away.
Prayers are effective activities that can impact positively on the illness and health, especially during the dying process, depending on the patient’s beliefs. It is vital to create a safe space for patients and their families to express frustration and concerns that can help in the healing process (Park, 2012) . Supporting the patient to let go off the guilt will play a vital role in the healing process. Implementing these strategies is appropriate for patients and can significantly impact their state of mind and feel at peace with their illness (Park, 2012) . It is prudent to note that different activities exist that can be included on the care plan to support the health beliefs of a patient, cultural background and spiritual beliefs in the health process and it is upon a nurse to choose the best form of therapy or activity.
Conclusion
There remains important aspects to understanding how illness and health are impacted by culture. It is clear that to address the issue of culture in healthcare; a lot needs to be done especially in incorporating certain activities such as culturally competent and being knowledgeable in the wellness process in a diverse cultural setting. Integrating spiritual beliefs during the healing process is also an effective strategy in the health process which should be factored in a diverse health setting. Healthcare practitioners such as nurses should strive to curb stereotyping and prejudice through inclusive cultural practices through clear guideline policies regarding the prevention of insensitive cultural practices as this will harm the health process.
References
Napier, A. D., Ancarno, C., Butler, B., Calabrese, J., Chater, A., Chatterjee, H., & Macdonald, A. (2014). Culture and health. The Lancet , 384 (9954), 1607-1639.
Park, C. L., (2012). Meaning, spirituality, and growth: Protective and resilience factors in health and illness.
Thompson, T. L., Parrott, R., & Nussbaum, J. F. (Eds.). (2011). The Routledge handbook of health communication . Routledge.
Williams, D. R., & Mohammed, S. A. (2013). Racism and health I: Pathways and scientific evidence. American behavioral scientist , 57 (8), 1152-11
